In brief

Key takeaways

According to the Bill, individuals would be pardoned for tax and currency control offences with respect to personal assets properly reported by such individuals within the tax amnesty procedures. The tax amnesty is time-bound to the period commencing on 1 July 2021 and ending on 1 July 2022.

The tax amnesty offers eligible individuals a benefit of disclosing reportable assets and their taxation with Special Tax of 9%, 5% or 2.5% rate, as applicable. Publicly exposed persons may not enjoy the tax amnesty.

The Bill offers an opportunity to participate in the tax amnesty either in person or through an authorized representative with the latter alternative allowing rather unprecedented level of confidentiality and anonimity.

The proper compliance with the tax amnesty procedures relieves an individual from the obligation to disclose the sources of the reported income/assets to the tax office. At the same time, no relief is provided for the AML and KYC purposes.

In more detail

1. WHO IS ELIGIBLE

A private individual ("Applicant"):

1. a resident of Ukraine for the tax purposes, including self-employed individual, and
2. a foreign tax resident who used to be Ukrainian tax resident at the time when reportable income had arisen.

2. WHO IS NOT ELIGIBLE

1. Publicly exposed persons, i.e., individuals who were required to file declarations under anti-corruption legislation for any period since 1 January 2005;
2. Individuals who are not of a legal age.

Special rules apply to "close relatives" of publicly exposed persons.

3. WHAT IS PARDONED

The proposed tax amnesty covers "reportable assets" in the form of:

• taxable income derived prior to 1 January 2021 but failed to be reported for tax compliance purposes, and
• assets acquired at the expense of such non-reported taxable income, including
  • currency values, e.g., foreign currency held with foreign banks by eligible individuals;
  • movable and immovable property, securities, stakes in legal entities, intellectual property rights and/or financial instruments owned by the Applicant;
  • other assets, property, property rights
    • directly owned by the Applicant;
    • controlled by the Applicant, including assets which generate or may generate income for the Applicant.

4. WHAT IS NOT PARDONED

In contrast, the following assets are excluded for the purposes of the tax amnesty:

• income, property, other assets acquired through criminal activities, OTHER THAN criminal tax evasion, currency control offences, violations of the concentration procedure under the Ukrainian antitrust legislation;
• income, property, other assets of the Applicant who is subject to a pre-trial investigation or court proceedings for certain criminal violations, including criminal tax evasion, forgery by an official, etc.;
• physical cash UNLESS deposited with Ukrainian banks under so-called "special bank account" procedure. No relief is provided for the associated KYC and AML procedures conducted by Ukrainian banks in terms of checking, for instance, source of deposited funds.

5. TAX RATES

If properly disclosed, the qualifying income is proposed to be taxed at the following Special Tax rates:

• 5% of the tax base of
  • the currency values deposited with Ukrainian banks,
  • debt claims to residents of Ukraine, or
  • other reportable assets located (registered) in Ukraine,
• 9% of the tax base of
  • the currency values deposited with foreign banks,
  • debt claims to non-residents of Ukraine, or
  • other reportable assets located (registered) outside of Ukraine,
• 2.5% of the nominal value of Ukrainian government bonds with maturity greater than 1 year and no premature termination, acquired (i) between 1 January 2021 and 20 June 2022 (ii) prior to filing of the Special Declaration, BUT
• 18% in case of the established violation of the tax amnesty procedure pertaining to
  • depositing currency values with banks and other financial institutions,
  • providing proper documentary support for debt claims.

6. REPORTING AND PAYMENT

The Applicant may file the Special Declaration either personally, or through an authorized representative, i.e., Ukrainian notary, whereby the latter would submit the Depersonalized Special Declaration to the tax office, allowing, thus, the Applicant not to disclose his/her identity to the tax office.
Self-assessed tax liability is payable within 10 calendar days following the submission of the Special Declaration.

7. AFFORDED BENEFITS

Upon discharging the "final" tax assessment, the Applicant would be:

1. relieved of the obligation to prove the sources of the reported income/assets;
2. exonerated of criminal liability for tax evasion, tax non-compliance etc. perpetrated before 1 January 2021;
3. relieved of financial liability for violation of tax and currency control legislation with respect to the reported income/assets.

8. CONFIDENTIALITY

Information reported by the Applicant in the Special Declaration and supporting documents would be treated confidential and may not be relied upon in the course of audits or used as evidence in criminal proceedings with respect to the reported income/assets.