The State Tax Service of Ukraine announced that from January 1, 2020 the details of budget accounts will be changed due to the fact that from the beginning of 2020 the State Treasury Service of Ukraine will open accounts for payment of taxes and fees in accordance with the public sector Plan of accounts, approved by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine as of December 31, 2013 No. 1203 (as amended).
Information on the budget accounts details, which will come into force on January 1,2020, after its receipt from the Treasury will be published on the web-portals of the State Tax Service bodies under the heading “Budgetary Accounts”.
The State Tax Service of Ukraine through the Office of Large Taxpayers has informed that from December 18, 2019, the Law of Ukraine “On amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine concerning improvement of the procedure of licensing business activities” No. 139-IX of October 2, 2019 will be effective.
This document changes the procedure and grounds for administrative liability for violations related to business activities without licenses, financial services, alcohol and tobacco trade, with or without counterfeit of excise stamps.
Thus, since December 18 the trade (wholesale, retail, export, import) of ethyl alcohol, cognac, fruit and retail alcoholic beverages or tobacco without a license will be subject to the provisions of part 1 of Art. 164 (imposing a fine from 1 000 to 2 000 tax-exempt minimum incomes (from 17 000 to 34 000 UAH) with confiscation of manufactured products, tools of production, raw materials and money obtained as a result of committing this administrative offense, or without such) instead of Art. 156 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (hereinafter – CAO) will be applied.
In addition, the court may not apply the confiscation of goods and proceeds from their sale (currently under Article 156 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, such confiscation is mandatory).
Currently in accordance with Part 1 of Art. 164 of the CAO the offenders are held liable for conducting business activities:
- without the license or other permits;
- in violation of license conditions.
Starting December 18, according to Part 1 of Art. 164 CAO (as revised) there will be no charges for activities in breach of license terms. However, the activity during the period of termination of the license will be considered a violation, unless the law provides the conditions of operation of the entity during that period.
Supplements to Art. 164 are also related to violations by the licensee of the statutory period of notification of the licensing authority on changes to the information specified in the application and documents, which were added to the license application, entailing a fine of between 250 and 500 tax-exempt minimum incomes (hereinafter – TEMI) 4 250 to 8 500 UAH).
In addition, if the licensee fails to comply with the order to eliminate the violation of the license conditions, the fine will be from 500 to 1 500 TEMI (from 8 500 to 25 500 UAH).
The courts will still hold subjects liable for violations of licensing issues under Art. 164 of the CAO based on the records of authorized persons of licensing bodies.
On December 18, according to Art. 1668 of the CAO penalties will be imposed not only for breach of the procedure for financial services provision without obtaining financial institution status or without a license, but also for breach of procedure for financial services provision by legal entities entitled to provide individual financial services without the status of financial institutions.
The State Labor Service of Ukraine has clarified whether an employer can refuse to divide employee’s annual principal paid vacations into parts.
The priority of vacations at enterprises, institutions, organizations is determined by schedules, approved by the owner or authorized body in agreement with the elected body of the primary trade union organization (trade union representative) and is communicated to all employees. Production schedules take into account the interests of production, the personal interests of employees and the opportunities for their rest.
The specific period of vacations within the limits set by the schedule is agreed between the employee and the owner or authorized body, which is obliged to notify the employee in writing of the date of the beginning of the vacation not later than two weeks before the scheduled date.
According to parts 1 and 2 of Art. 12 of the Law of Ukraine “On Vacations” the annual vacation at the request of the employee can be divided into parts of any duration, provided that the main continuous part of it will be at least 14 calendar days. At the same time, this article provides only the opportunity and not the obligation of the employer to divide the annual vacation into parts as the employee wishes.
In order to avoid loss of working time and taking into account production circumstances, the employer may not agree to split the vacations as the employee wishes and can also offer his or her terms for division of the annual vacations or do not split it at all.
In accordance with item 2 of part 13 of Art. 10 of the Law of Ukraine “On Vacations” annual vacations are granted to the persons with disabilities at their convenient time.
The State Labor Service of Ukraine published on its official website order “On Approval of the Plan of Measures for State Supervision (Control) of the State Labor Service of Ukraine for 2020” No. 106 of November 29, 2019, which approved the plan of inspections for 2020.
Almost 17,000 businesses (16,905) are divided into three risk groups for inspections which are small, medium and high. The plan also indicates the dates for inspections.
The subject of inspections will be compliance with legislation in the fields of industrial safety, labor protection, occupational health, handling of explosive industrial materials, as well as legislation in the field of employment and employment of persons with disabilities.
The panel of judges of the Court of Cassation as a part of the Supreme Court of Ukraine heard case No. 160/3114/19 and canceled the claim for a hired lawyer to pay a single social security tax debt (hereinafter – USST).
The lower courts ruled that persons conducting an independent professional activity and at the same time being employees are not exempted from paying USST if they are registered as persons conducting an independent professional activity.
The Supreme Court disagreed with this and made the following legal conclusion: “A person pursuing an independent professional activity, in particular a lawyer, is considered to be self-employed and is obliged to pay a single contribution to compulsory state social insurance not less than the amount of the minimum social security contribution regardless of the actual income provided that such person is not a hired worker. If the lawyer is a hired employee, he or she is insured and the employer pays the single contribution. That is, the purpose of collecting a single contribution to compulsory state social insurance is achieved as the employer pays it”.
The ruling of CAT of the SCU of November 27, 2019 states that “Another interpretation of the provisions of Law No. 2464-VI, on which the SFS insists on the need to pay a single contribution by persons who are registered with the SFS bodies and have a certificate that allows to practice law, and who are simultaneously are employed within the scope of this activity causes double payment (directly by the person and the employer), which contradicts the purpose of the unified insurance contribution introduced by the state” – stated in.
