Law of Ukraine “On the State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs” № 755-IV, dated 15 May 2003 was restated in its entirety under the new title “On the State Registration of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Civic Organisations” by Law of Ukraine № 835-VII, dated 26 November 2015 (Law.)

The restated version of the Law is effective as from 1 January 2016, and it no longer contains provisions requiring verification of “data concerning legal entities” by the state registrars and legal entities (as was mandated by sections 11, 12, 14 of Article 19 of the previous version of the Law) and allowing termination of a legal entity by a court decision (section 6 of part 2 of Article 38 of the previous version of the Law) being passed due to the fact that the Uniform State Register (Register) contains an entry that a legal entity is missing at its registered address (such “‘missing” entry should have been in the Register once a legal entity had failed to verify “data concerning legal entities.”)

Order № 15/5 of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on 6 January 2016 invalidated Order No. 3178/5 “On Approval of Templates of Registration Forms” of 14 October 2011. The invalidated Order No. 3178/5 was approving, inter alia, a template form No.  6 – a registration form to be submitted to verify “data concerning legal entities” with the Register on an annual basis.

In view of the above, the state registrars and legal entities are NO LONGER obliged to perform any actions in order to verify “data concerning legal entities” and establish the fact that a legal entity is available or missing at its registered address. In practice, this means that businesses are no longer required to file annually with the state registrar’s verifications of “data concerning legal entities.”

Law of Ukraine № 909-VIII “On Amending the Tax Code of Ukraine and Certain legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Assuring Balanced Budget Receipts in 2016,” dated 24 December 2015, deleted section 184.1 ж) of the Tax Code of Ukraine, section provided as follows:

“184.1. Registration shall be valid by the date of cancellation of a taxpayer’s registration, which cancellation is made by removing a taxpayer from the taxpayers’ register, and is made if: … ж) the Register contains an entry that a legal entity or an individual is missing at its registered address (place of residence) or an entry that “data concerning legal entities” has not been verified;”

Hence, the above deletion makes it now impossible to use (1) a failure to verify “data concerning legal entities” and/or (2) a fact that a legal entity is missing at its registered address, as a ground for:

Cancelling VAT registration of a legal entity; and/or

Terminating a legal entity based on a court decision being passed due to the fact that the Register contains an entry that a legal entity is missing at its registered address.

We would like to highlight that the respective changes are yet to be made to the Procedure for Keeping Tabs of Payers of Taxes and Duties approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine № 1588, dated 9 December 2011 (as restated by order of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine dated 22 April 2014 under No. 462). Thus, it may not be excluded that in practice fiscal authorities could still continue sending “data concerning legal entities” inquiries, but in this case it would be recommended to respond that such inquiries are unlawful, as they are no longer supported by the Tax Code.

Contacts

Volodymyr Monastyrskyy

Partner

Dentons, Kyiv

T +380 44 494 47 74

volodymyr.monastyrskyy@dentons.com

Roman Mehedynyuk

Associate

Dentons, Kyiv

T +380 44 494 47 74

roman.mehedynyuk@dentons.com

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