In the first half of 2025, the tourist tax in Ukraine reached a record level — 142.6 million hryvnias of revenues to local budgets. This is a third more than last year and double the figure for 2021. At the same time, the main tax revenues are still ahead, because the peak of the tourist season falls on the second half of the year, reports Opendatabot.
This year, funds from tourists came almost equally from big business and small entrepreneurs: 55% were provided by hotels and large accommodation facilities, and 45% by owners of apartments, estates and small tourist facilities. For comparison, a few years ago business had a significant advantage (62%). Currently, large companies retain dominance in paying the tax in only six regions: Kyiv (83%), Sumy region (73%), Khmelnytskyi region (61%), Lviv region (57%), Rivne region and Poltava region – 51% each.
Denys Popov, legal engineer of Opentatabot, points out that official data do not always reflect the real picture of income:
“Not all home owners who rent out their apartments to tourists work officially, are registered, accept official payments and, accordingly, pay the fee. Therefore, the actual volume of the market is much larger than recorded in the reports, and so is the share of private entrepreneurs. However, with the introduction of a single register of transactions under the control of the tax service, the situation is gradually changing: the shadow segment is shrinking, and revenues to local budgets are becoming more transparent and stable. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons for the significant increase in indicators in 2025.
The largest donors to local budgets were Kyiv (33.6 million UAH), Lviv Region (26.6 million UAH) and Ivano-Frankivsk Region (22.1 million UAH). Together, these three regions provided 58% of all tourism tax revenues. Kyiv regained the championship only last year, after a two-year break, when Lviv was the leader. Odesa, which was in second place back in 2021, has now lost its position due to the war — the collection there has almost halved from the level of 2021. At the same time, Bukovyna, Prykarpattia, and Cherkasy showed rapid growth — three to four times compared to pre-war indicators.
The tourist tax remains a small tax paid by everyone who stays in a hotel, hostel or rents accommodation for vacation: from a few tens of hryvnias for Ukrainians to a few hundred for foreigners. Funds go directly to local budgets. In 2025, given the increase in the minimum wage (8,000 hryvnias), the maximum tax rate will be 40 hryvnias for domestic tourism and 400 hryvnias for foreigners.
