The U-LEAD with Europe Programme continues to act as a communication platform between municipalities and relevant institutions/organisations to provide explanations to local self-government bodies on pressing issues during martial law. To help the municipalities of Kharkiv Oblast understand the powers of taxation and fees under martial law, the team of the local U-LEAD with Europe Regional Office in partnership with the Main Department of the State Tax Service organised an information session.
"We appreciate the Main Department of the State Tax Service in Kharkiv Oblast for the long-term partnership, assistance to the municipalities of the oblast and the opportunity for the local self-government bodies to receive expert explanations from the source. The format of such cooperation is also important: open information events are also an opportunity for municipalities to ask tax officials clarifying questions and jointly discuss solutions to certain issues," said Oksana Cherkas, Head of the Regional Office.
In her speech, Svitlana Podsokha, Deputy Head of the Regional State Tax Service, informed the participants of the event that over 5 months of 2023, local budgets in Kharkiv Oblast received more than UAH 9.8 billion in tax payments administered by the local State Tax Service. She emphasised:
"The work to ensure timely tax revenues is carried out in active cooperation with local authorities and the taxpayers."
The event featured speakers from the Main Department of the State Tax Service in Kharkiv Oblast.
"Municipalities received detailed explanations on the conditions for land and real estate tax payers to take advantage of national benefits, and in which cases local self-government bodies decide to establish individual benefits. It was emphasised that taxpayers on the territories of municipalities included in the list of active hostilities and temporarily occupied by Russian Federation, which are determined on the basis of the Ministry of Reintegration's order No. 309, are automatically exempted," said Maryna Honcharenko, Municipal Finance and Management Adviser of the Regional Office.
According to her, the largest number of questions from municipalities concerned the mechanism for local councils to establish individual tax exemptions for the local taxes and/or fees based on a taxpayer's application for potential contamination of a land plot with explosive objects. Since the sequence of actions of the local self-government bodies and the list of documents to be submitted by the taxpayer with the application are not detailed in the legislation, the municipalities were encouraged to develop their own regulations on granting individual benefits.
Finally, the participants' attention was also drawn to the fact that an individual benefit is granted from the first day of the month when the decision to establish the benefit was made and no longer than the end of the calendar year.