Business oppressed by tax officials – changes in the VAT system are necessary right away

Having survived an extremely difficult year in 2022, the Business Ombudsman Council (BOC) only enhanced its performance but continues serving as a mediator advocating for legality in the relations between entrepreneurs and state bodies.
During 2022, BOC processed 1299 business inquiries and completed the investigation of 1001 cases. The beginning of the full-scale invasion of the russian federation in Ukraine forced the institution to respond to new challenges for Ukrainian business by creating an Operational Support Line for entrepreneurs (Helpline), which operated during nine months of the war. A gradual return of pre-war problems to business life, particularly the surge of “tax” complaints, prompted the Council to resume working in the traditional investigations format at the end of 2022. You can read about concerns of Ukrainian business during the Helpline period (March-November 2022) in the annual report here.
In Q1 2023, the Council received 328 complaints from companies regarding malpractice of state bodies and closed 136 cases. The amount of funds BOC helped businesses to return or save amounted to UAH 326 mn. Meanwhile, the Council’s financial effect since its launch reached UAH 25 bn.
During January-March of the current year, companies were most often concerned about tax issues — for the third quarter in a row, their number made up 70% of all appeals to the institution. The avalanche of tax invoices suspension complaints, which affected over 40% of active VAT payers, including hundreds of companies-Council’s complainants, induced the Business Ombudsman to conduct his own initiative investigation into VAT system problems. BOC presented the investigation results with a list of systemic recommendations to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and the State Tax Service of Ukraine in a special report.
“An attempt to increase budget revenues by blocking a significant part of Ukrainian business cannot serve for either victory or recovery. Strengthened joint efforts of the Government, deputies and the business community are required to define effective but not extortionate tax administration rules”, Roman Waschuk, Business Ombudsman pointed out.
BOC boosts interaction with all stakeholders involved in the processes of European integration of Ukraine and its future reconstruction. Therefore, at the beginning of the year, the Council updated the Memorandum of Cooperation with the NACP and formalized the partnership in the Memorandum with the newly established Recovery Agency. BOC cooperation with Diia.Business national project also got an impetus — a separate page on the portal was dedicated to the Council’s assistance to entrepreneurs.
Present-day realities, in which Ukraine is daily fighting for the right to its independent existence, require reactive actions, productive synergies and introduction of even greater flexibility and service focus for Ukrainian entrepreneurship. In this regard, the Business Ombudsman and his team have been consistently defending the legal rights of business before the state for eight years already. After all, it is Ukrainian business that is the backbone of economic transformations, and its uninterrupted work contributes to the fastest possible reconstruction, bringing the irreversibility of victory over the russian aggressor closer.
BOC works in normal mode. You can submit a complaint to the institution through the form on the website. You can also send questions about the complaint to the Telegram chat at : +380 (99) 237 37 37. 
You can read the quarterly report here.