In September 2023, an entrepreneur started her building repair and reconstruction business. Everything was going according to the plan: she registered as VAT payer, gradually began hiring employees, purchasing equipment, and signed her first big contract. However, the entrepreneur soon faced an unexpected obstacle.
The tax service refused to accept the VAT payer data table, which was necessary for unhindered registration of tax invoices for repair work. The entrepreneur submitted such a table weekly throughout October, but each time received a refusal with the vague wording “other; inconsistency of activities with fixed assets”. The situation escalated when the registration of the first advance tax invoices was blocked.
Unable to reach a documented understanding with the regional tax office, the entrepreneur appealed the refusal of the data table to the central level commission, but also without success – then the reason was insufficient labor resources.
Convinced otherwise, the entrepreneur turned to the Business Ombudsman Council for help. Our team thoroughly examined the situation and found that the tax office might not have taken into account a number of important factors: the business was just starting its activities, the staff was expanding dynamically, and the salary levels were growing. Considering the time gaps between real business processes and tax reporting (monthly for VAT; quarterly for employee income and hours worked), the tax office did not see the full and current picture.
The Council initiated a review of the case with the Main Department of the State Tax Service, and the latter recorded the true circumstances of the case. As a result, positive decisions were made on the registration of suspended advance tax invoices and acceptance of the table by the regional commission. However, after a week and a half, the entrepreneur received extremely unpleasant news in her electronic office – the central level commission cancelled the table accepted by the regional tax office, again for “other” reasons: in addition to the inconsistency of fixed assets, the central commission also referred to the lack of information about the company’s activities with reference to the reporting. This forced the Council to bring up the issue for consideration at a monthly Expert group meeting with the State Tax Service of Ukraine.
After processing the submitted materials and discussing the situation at the expert group meeting, the State Tax Service of Ukraine confirmed the absence of any remarks on business activities – immediately afterwards, the entrepreneur resubmitted the data table, which was finally accepted at last before the New Year. The problems with registering tax invoices for the payer were resolved.
