The Tax Service of Ukraine plans to collect tax from every sale through OLX, Rozetka and Prom

Recently, reports appeared on the Internet that the Tax Service of Ukraine intends to control citizens’ sales via the Internet and fine those who do not pay taxes on such income. Subsequently, representatives of the tax service provided an explanation, emphasizing that the control will apply only to entrepreneurs who regularly trade via Internet platforms and potentially evade taxes. Ordinary citizens who occasionally sell their things online should not worry. However, it seems that it is too early to relax.

The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has prepared a bill that introduces new rules for taxation of income of individuals received via digital trading platforms. This was reported by People’s Deputy Nina Yuzhanina. The innovations will affect users of such resources as OLX, Prom, Rozetka and others.

The draft document stipulates that digital platforms will be obliged to annually submit information to the tax service about all sellers who made at least one sale during the year. In addition, platforms must obtain the status of tax agents and automatically withhold taxes from users’ income. This includes personal income tax (PIT) at a rate of 18% and military duty of 5%. Thus, 23% of the income received will be deducted from each sale, which is 230 hryvnias out of every thousand.

The Ministry of Finance refers to European experience and the norms of the EU Council Directive 2021/514 (DAC7), adopted on March 22, 2021, aimed at increasing tax transparency of digital platforms. At the same time, as experts note, the Ukrainian bill does not take into account the threshold values ​​​​in force in the European Union for the mandatory transfer of tax data.

In EU countries, information about sellers is transferred to tax authorities only if their annual income exceeds 2,000 euros or if at least 30 transactions are recorded. The draft of the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance does not provide for such restrictions: reporting should cover all sellers regardless of the volume of sales. Even a single sale for an amount of up to one hryvnia will fall under the new requirements.

More details are expected after the official registration of the bill in the Verkhovna Rada.