Ukraine’s Rada Finance, Taxes, Customs Committee to focus on EU integration legislation in 2025 – chair

The Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Taxation, and Customs Policy plans to focus on implementing legislative acts necessary for European integration and further reforming Ukrainian legislation as its baseline scenario for 2025, according to Committee Chairman Danylo Hetmantsev.

"With $38.3 billion in support and assistance from partners, we are fully prepared to navigate 2025 and currently foresee no risks… While we can't 100% rule out the need to raise taxes, there's a 90% chance that everything will proceed smoothly next year," Hetmantsev said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

He explained that, given the ongoing war, it is impossible to entirely exclude the need for new revenue-raising laws.

Commenting further on legislative plans for 2025, Hetmantsev highlighted the importance of implementing the DAC-7 Directive (Directive on Administrative Cooperation), which governs the automatic exchange of income information from digital platforms for tax purposes.

"Second, we need to implement directives aimed at combating tax evasion, specifically ATAD I (Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive) and ATAD II. These introduce new tools for corporate taxation and European GAAR rules," he added.

Hetmantsev also emphasized the importance of finalizing and adopting measures related to electronic auditing. "We have two pre-war bills on the matter, but they are no longer relevant. We won't adopt them in their current form. Today, the Tax Service is finalizing software for the so-called Standard Audit File for Tax (SAF-T). Testing is scheduled for March," he said.

Following the testing phase, the Parliament will introduce and pass SAF-T-related legislation. This will fundamentally reshape the interaction between taxpayers and the Tax Service, increasing transparency, reducing the fiscal burden in such interactions, and aligning with OECD standards in this domain.

"On the final stretch with OECD experts, we are drafting a law to refine transfer pricing rules. Although we've continuously updated these rules, our current framework aligns with the 2010 OECD guidelines, while new standards from 2022 now need to be implemented," Hetmantsev said.

He added that a law on the legalization and taxation of crypto assets is expected to pass, at least in the first reading, or potentially in its entirety, during the first quarter of next year.

"Another priority is establishing clear KPIs for the Tax and Customs Services. We submitted the respective draft laws to Parliament this week," Hetmantsev said.

Regarding customs, he noted that the Ministry of Finance is preparing significant legislation to further integrate the EU Customs Code into Ukrainian law.

"In terms of financial services, we need to adopt a law on the National Development Institution. It's ready for its second reading. We must also pass legislation on financial inclusion to enable last-mile banking services. Additionally, there's a bill on factoring, aimed at launching a factoring market. That's my personal bill, which was registered in Parliament just last week," Hetmantsev added.