Business and the Pandemic: How the Government Plans to Support Entrepreneurs in Crisis

Before we had the time to evaluate the changes introduced by Law of Ukraine No. 533-IX of March 17, 2020, “On amendments to the Tax Code in connection with the spread of coronavirus”, the Government adopted a new legislative document, namely the Law of Ukraine "On amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine aimed at providing additional social and economic guarantees in connection with the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)” No. 540-IX, which entered into force on 02.04.2020.

Accountor Ukraine would like to present the most important changes made by Law No. 540-IX:

1. The limits for groups of individual entrepreneurs who qualify as unified tax payers have been changed:

- Group 1: from 300 thousand UAH to 1 million UAH (824 043,72 is the rest of the limit till the end of 2020, taking into account the rates which were in force until 01.04.2020);

- Group 2:  from 1.5 to 5 million UAH (4 120 218,58 is the rest of the limit till the end of 2020, taking into account the rates which were in force until 01.04.2020);

- Group 3: from 5 to 7 million UAH (6 497 267,76 is the rest of the limit till the end of 2020, taking into account the rates which were valid till 01.04.2020);

2. Transactions related to import of medicines, medical devices and equipment for countering COVID-19 and delivery of such items to the customs territory of Ukraine shall be exempt from VAT. Accountor would like to stress that the VAT exemption is effective for transactions from March 17, 2020 till the last day of the last month of the quarantine.
3. Land and real estate taxes are not payable from March 01, 2020 to March 31, 2020. Meanwhile, the taxes for April 2020 must be paid, but the payment is deferred until June 26, 2020 (prior to this, Law No. 533-IX used to abolish the payment for April).
4. When determining the object of taxation for tax reporting periods of 2020, corporate income tax payers will be able to include the full amount of costs for free transfer of the amount of money, cost of equipment, goods, materials from the list above solely related to operations to provide assistance to entities listed in Law No. 540-IX, provided that these operations are carried out from 02.04.2020 until the end of the quarantine.
5. Rules for remote work  of employees have been implemented.
6. During quarantine, the government will have the right to set marginal prices for public and anti-epidemic products.
7. At the employer’s request, partial unemployment benefits will be paid to the employees who have not been dismissed, but whose salaries and work hours have been reduced by the employer (for medium-sized and small businesses only).
8.  The terms of temporary exemption from penalties for untimely (or partial) USC payment and untimely USC reporting to tax authorities have been prolonged till May 31, 2020 (prior to this, according to Law No.533, they were effective until April 30, 2020).
9. Local government entities shall have the right to make decisions on reduction of unified tax rates for group 1 and group 2 of individual entrepreneurs.