Tax fines for individual entrepreneurs have increased dramatically: the amount has increased 5.7 times
The State Tax Service conducted more than 5,000 documentary audits of individual entrepreneurs in the first nine months of 2024. Although the total number of inspections decreased by 25%, the amount of fines imposed increased fivefold compared to the same period last year. This is reported by Opendatabot.
Analysts note that this year 5,483 documentary inspections of individual entrepreneurs were carried out, which is 26% less than in the previous year. For comparison, in 2021, a record number of inspections was recorded – 31,178, which averaged 2,600 inspections per month. This year, however, the number of inspections decreased to 600 per month.
Despite the decrease in the number of inspections, the total amount of fines in 2024 increased 5.7 times compared to the same period last year. Entrepreneurs managed to appeal more than half of these fines.
‘This year, tax audits have resulted in additional UAH 2.33 billion, and after appealing tax decisions, this amount has dropped to UAH 1.06 billion. By comparison, last year only a third of the fines were appealed,’ Opendatabot noted.
The grounds for inspections may include understatement of income, overstatement of expenses, misuse of tax benefits, VAT violations, late submission of reports, cooperation with risky counterparties, non-compliance with currency legislation or incorrect accounting of tax differences.
This year, more than 3,300 scheduled inspections of companies and individual entrepreneurs are planned. In addition, the moratorium on documentary inspections of sole proprietorships of groups 1 and 2 in Ukraine expires on 1 December, which may lead to an increase in the number of inspections.
As a reminder, starting from 2025, individual entrepreneurs will again be obliged to pay a single social contribution. After the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the possibility of not paying the unified social contribution until the end of the war and for the next 12 months was introduced, but the new budget provides for the termination of this benefit.
