Expert: abolition of banking secrecy is Hetmantsev's dream, which will lead to taxation of everything and everyone
Kyiv • UNN
Dmytro Oleksiyenko notes that the presented National Revenue Strategy provides for the disclosure of banking secrecy.
Currently, banking secrecy protects citizens' money on card accounts from the tax authorities, and disclosure of banking secrecy will allow taxing everyone and everything. This was stated by Dmytro Oleksiyenko, a member of the Board of ICC Ukraine, a member of the Board of the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine, in a commentary to UNN.
He noted that the recently presented National Revenue Strategy provides for the disclosure of banking secrecy, because now "there is no tool to tax everyone and everything, that is, there is no access to information - to cards and, accordingly, no tool to tax.
"This strategy provides a tool for opening banking secrecy... I think that our volunteers who collect money for the military and army on cards will be the first to fall under the taxation roller coaster. Do you see how our government agencies are now taking care of volunteers in quotation marks? Just look at the Register of the Ministry of Social Policy, where volunteers will have to report electronically - it was on December 1, then postponed to April - how much was shipped, how much was left in warehouses, all this should be done before they import aid here to Ukraine - all applications should be in the system," the expert said.
He added that the destruction of the bank secrecy mechanism in Ukraine has been going on since 2019 and that the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee, MP Danylo Hetmanetsev, is behind it. The expert believes that this is Hetmanetsev's dream.
"And step by step, since 19, when he became a deputy, they tried to destroy banking secrecy. First, in 19, amendments were adopted to the law on banks and banking activities, according to which investigative bodies - all law enforcement agencies - except the tax authorities - were granted the right to request bank transactions without a court order as part of criminal cases. Then, a year later, state bailiffs were allowed access to accounts and balances... They are still submitting bills on alternative taxation of individuals, according to which you open an account and the bank simply leaks information on this account... the rules are as follows: the bank leaks it to the tax office, and the tax office itself accrues liabilities. The bank writes them off automatically. And if you don't agree, go to court," the expert says.
According to Oleksiyenko, the developed National Strategy does not meet the requirements of the IMF, which were laid down in the memorandum signed with Ukraine, but is simply aimed at destroying legal business in Ukraine.
"This is all a tightening of the screws that brings us to the very last level in the world in terms of ease of doing business. Who will invest here if we don't have the most basic thing - bank secrecy. They say that there is no banking secrecy anywhere in the EU, which is a lie," the expert added.
