The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses and Criminal Code of Ukraine concerning strengthening the level of responsibility for violation of fire and technogenic safety requirements.
According to the draft these amendments provide that the minimum penalty for an administrative offence is 510 UAH, while maximum – 8 500 UAH.
The penalty for deliberately false police, ambulance or emergency service call is increased. It will be from 3 400 to 10 200 UAH.
Moreover, criminal liability is introduced for the violation of technogenic safety requirements, which has led to an accident or other dangerous event with grave consequences.
These amendments will become effective after the draft law is adopted by the Parliament.
Prior to that, the fine for violation of fire safety requirements for citizens was from 8.5 to 119 UAH, and for officials – from 34 to 170 UAH.
In addition, the Government is currently addressing the issue of legislative regulation of the obligation to allocate funds in the state and local budgets for targeted fire safety measures aimed at reducing the risk of fires in public and administrative buildings of educational, health and other institutions.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the Resolution “On approving the budget of the social insurance fund of Ukraine for 2020” in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On obligatory state social insurance”.
The budget determines that the Fund's revenues in 2020 (together with the balance of funds at the beginning of the year) will be UAH 29 227.6 million, expenditures will reach UAH 29 195.6 million. The balance of funds at the end of 2020 is estimated at UAH 32.0 million.
Let us recall that the implementation of Art. 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On obligatory state social insurance” of the Board of the Fund approved on December 26, 2019 the draft annual budget of the Fund for 2020 on a non-deficit basis and submitted in accordance with the established procedure to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine for further submission to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for approval.
The State Tax Service of Ukraine in the individual tax consultation “Concerning the discounting of goods that are in the territory not controlled by Ukraine” No. 167/6/99-00-07-02-02-06/ІПК of January 17, 2020 has reported that the operation of the depreciation of goods does not affect value added tax (hereinafter – VAT), since the delivery of goods does not take place during its application.
The VAT liabilities in the case of an operation to supply such discounted goods are accrued on the date of the event specified in item 187.1 of the Tax Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – TCU), which occurred earlier (the “first event”), taking into account the VAT tax base established by item 188.1 of the TCU, which should not be lower than the purchase price of the goods (for previously purchased goods) or the ordinary prices (for self-made goods).
If, in the case of the supply of such discounted goods, the contract price is less than the tax base specified in item 188.1 of the Tax Code, the taxpayer shall prepare two tax invoices for their supply: one – for the amount calculated on the basis of the actual delivery price (such tax invoice is provided to the recipient of the goods/services), the second – to the amount calculated on the basis of excess of the purchase price/ordinary price above the actual price (such tax invoice remains with the supplier of the goods/services).
A tax invoice for the excess amount may be drawn up as at the date of the first event specified in item 187.1 of the TCU, and in accordance with item 201.4 of the TCU, no later than the last day of the month in which such delivery occurred, a consolidated tax invoice may be drawn up.
The State Tax Service of Ukraine in the individual tax consultation “Concerning the accrual and payment of a single contribution from remuneration of a foreign citizen” No. 60/6/99-00-04-07-03-06/ІПК of January 10, 2020 has reported: if an individual – a foreign citizen works under the terms of a civil contract in an organization in Ukraine, such a foreigner is an insured person, and the amount paid to him is the basis for accruing a single social contribution (hereinafter – SSC).
Such an explanation, provided by the specialists of the State Tax Service, is supported by, in particular, the reference to Art. 3 of Fundamentals of the Legislation of Ukraine on obligatory state social insurance No. 16/98-ВР of January 14, 1998.
The insured nationals of Ukraine, foreign nationals, stateless persons and their families residing in Ukraine have the right to social security under obligatory state social insurance. Of course, unless the legislation of Ukraine, as well as the international agreement of Ukraine, the consent to which was provided by the Verkhovna Rada otherwise provide.
At the same time, the supervisors noted that each specific case of the relationship between the accrual and payment of the SSC should be considered taking into account the documents and materials pertaining to the particular case.
Ministry of Finance of Ukraine by the Order “On amendments to forms and procedure for completion and submission of value added tax reporting and recognition of order of the State Tax Administration of Ukraine No. 167 of March 29, 2011 as invalid” No. 488 of November 20, 2019 amended the VAT returns form and the Procedure for completing it.
The main point of the innovations is to add directly to the VAT return (namely in its annex Д6) a table, which will provide information about the amounts of VAT not paid to the budget in connection with the receipt of tax benefits (analog to the Report on amounts of tax benefits).
As of January, 2020 the VAT reports must be submitted in an updated form.
Item 1 of the updated VAT Reporting Procedure states that the VAT report is submitted within the deadlines set by Art. 203 of the TCU (which refers only to the reporting period – month), that is, within 20 calendar days that come after the last calendar day of the reporting month.
Let us remind that the quarterly VAT period must be abolished (only a month remains). But, given that the advent of the new law is delayed (it will not come into force before February), it is very likely that the quarterly period will remain for the I quarter of 2020.
The Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine in the letter “On the terms of payment of salaries and assistance from SIF” No. 1680/0/206-19 of November 19, 2019 reminded that specific terms of payment of salaries are set by enterprises, organizations independently in the contract or other normative act of the employer. The representatives of the department drew attention to several nuances.
Firstly, when the pay day coincides with the day off, holidays or non-working days, the salary is paid the day before (Part 2 of Article 24 of Law of Ukraine “On remuneration” No. 108/95-BP of March 24, 1995).
However, the next paycheck must be made on the days specified by the agreement or other normative act of the enterprise, regardless of whether the chief accountant is on vacation or whether the payment was made earlier once due to a production need.
Secondly, temporary disability benefits, maternity benefits are paid to employees as soon as possible after the day the benefit is assigned, the time period set for payment of salary (item 1 of part 2 of article 32 of Law of Ukraine “On obligatory state social insurance“ No. 1105-XIV of September 23, 1999).
Therefore, upon receipt of the Social Insurance Fund’s funding, the employer pays the financial contribution on the nearest pay day (for the first or second half of the month).
The State Labor Office of Ukraine has clarified the duration of annual leave for different categories of workers.
Indeed, according to Art. 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On leave“ the annual basic leave is granted to employees for not less than 24 calendar days for the complete working year, which is counted from the day of conclusion of the employment contract. Employees of other categories may have longer leave.
The annual leave for 24 + 4 calendar days are granted to the industrial-production personnel of the coal, shale, metallurgical, electric power industries, as well as employed in open-cast mining, on surface work of mines, cuts, quarries and mines, construction work in mine, transportation and mineral enrichment shall be granted an annual basic leave of 24 calendar days, with an increase of two calendar days every two working years, but not exceeding 28 calendar days.
The same duration of leave for underground mining workers in sections, quarries and mines up to 150 meters deep and non-military mine rescuers.
People with group III disabilities have 26 calendar days off.
28 calendar days leave is granted:
- Workers engaged in underground mining and cuts, quarries and mines 150 meters deep and below;
- Workers of the forest industry and forestry, state reserves, national parks with forested areas, forestry, permanent logging and forestry units of other enterprises, as well as forestry.
30 calendar days leave is provided to the military personnel of the mining and rescue units, persons with disabilities of groups I and II.
31 calendar days leave is granted to underage persons. In this case, according to Art. 75 of the Labor Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – LCU) the duration of their leave may not be less than 24 days.
The leave of 56 calendar days is granted to the managers of educational establishments and institutions, educational (pedagogical) units of other institutions and establishments, pedagogical, scientific-pedagogical and scientific workers.
Other duration of leave is granted to seasonal and temporary workers in proportion to their working hours. The list of seasonal works and seasonal branches is approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
The provisions on the duration of annual basic leave shall not apply to employees, for whom the duration of leave is laid down by other acts of legislation, but the duration of their leave may not be less than provided for in Parts 1, 7 and 8 of Art. 75 of the LCU.
