Head of SFS: Ukraine and Finland have good prospects for stepping up tax cooperation
The tax authorities of
Ukraine and Finland have good
prospects for strengthening and deepening cooperation.
This was stated by interim
Head of the
State Fiscal Service (SFS) Myroslav Prodan during the
meeting with acting Director General of the
Finnish Tax Administration.
"Tax administrations
are facing new challeneges, in particular, related to prompt
development of IT technologies. For this very reason
Finland's experience is of utmost
importance for us because our
tax authorities have similar tasks,"
stressed the interim Head of
the SFS.
He emphasized that the updating
and development of IT systems, ensuring their reliability and safety today are
among topmost priorities for SFS. Considerable attention is paid
to the introduction
of new services
for taxpayers and improvement of audit procedures.
The Finnish side
briefed on the main directions
of development of the Finnish
Tax Administration and achievements in the tax
area. Thus, according to survey
results, 97% of Finnish citizens consider taxes to be an
important social responsibility, while 79% are happy to
pay taxes.
According to the acting Head of
SFS, Ukraine also has a high free
will tax payment rate that
makes up almost 95%. Proceeding from the said fact, the State
Fiscal service pledges readiness to apply the
experience of Finnish colleagues in raising the
level of tax culture in
society and the attitude of
taxpayers to the need to
pay impositions.
Participants of the meeting also noted
the revival of trade and
economic relations between Ukraine and Finland, which,
to a certain extent, contributes to the implementation
of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.
Myroslav Prodan expressed
gratitude to the Finnish partners
for cooperation in the exchange
of tax information.
In particular, the SFS territorial authorities have recently contacted the Finnish side
with requests concerning economic activities of legal
entities, primarily founders, participants and managers of
enterprises, detection of tax evasion
schemes and transfer pricing.