Participants from more than 40 municipalities of the Kharkiv oblast took part in the information session, which the Regional Office of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme arranged for them together with the local Main Department of the State Tax Service.
The agenda of the session devoted to the topic of paying taxes and fees in the conditions of martial law was developed based on the questions sent by the municipalities in advance. This format is constantly used by U-LEAD so that event participants can get answers to the most urgent questions.
Oksana Cherkas, head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Kharkiv oblast, told us about it.
According to Maryna Honcharenko, adviser on municipal finance and management, as of today, municipalities are most concerned about the lack of a clear list of territories where taxpayers have the right not to pay land tax, minimum tax liability, real estate tax, environmental tax.
“This issue has been raised since March 2022, when amendments were made to the Tax Code, according to which the payment and assessment of certain taxes in those territories where hostilities are being waged and those that are temporarily occupied are suspended. But how can municipalities distinguish on which territories the taxes should be paid, and on which they shouldn’t? There was no such a list for a long time, and finally it appeared, approved by Order of the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories No. 309. However, today the problem remains unresolved, as there is currently no list approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, as required by the Tax Code. A question arises regarding the practical application of the Ministry of Reintegration’s list: can we rely on it when applying changes to the Tax Code?” she said.
As the adviser emphasised, the municipalities are concerned about whether the taxes listed will go to local budgets, since, according to the list of the Ministry of Reintegration, in the territory of all the municipalities of Kharkiv oblast, taxpayers can take advantage of tax benefits, since each of them is included in one of three categories: territories with possible hostilities, territories with active hostilities, and temporarily occupied territories.
According to the explanation of Nadiia Meshcheriakova, head of the division of rent payment and environmental tax administration of the Department of Taxation of Legal Entities of the Main Department of the State Tax Service in the Kharkiv oblast, the list of territories on which hostilities are (were) conducted or territories temporarily occupied by the armed forces of the Russian Federation, developed for the implementation of Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 1364 of 6 December 2022 and approved by order of the Ministry of Reintegration, cannot be used for taxation purposes, since Resolution No. 1364 defines the mechanism for forming a list of territories, but does not approve a specific list of such territories.
During the event, the municipalities of Kharkiv oblast together with the tax service experts reviewed the possibility of minimising losses of revenue to local budgets, the peculiarities of accruing and paying the minimum tax liability for 2022, and organizing effective cooperation between the State Tax Service and the local self-government bodies in the sphere of working with debtors.
Attention was also paid to the discussion of mechanisms for establishing information exchange between municipalities and State Tax Service bodies under martial law.
“We are grateful to our partners from the Main Department of the State Tax Service in the Kharkiv oblast for fruitful cooperation in the field of informing the municipalities of the Kharkiv oblast about important changes in tax and budget policies. Now, more than ever, it is important to maintain such a dialogue, to have a mutual understanding on issues related to the functioning of our state and our municipalities,” said Denys Tkachov, head of the Eastern Regional HUB of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.