The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a decision to establish an Interdepartmental Working Group on the de-shadowing of the economy and the development of fair competition. First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy of Ukraine Oleksiy Lyubchenko has become its Chair.

Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko has been appointed Deputy Chair of the Working Group. It also comprises the heads of the State Tax Service, the State Customs Service, the State Financial Monitoring Service, the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market of Ukraine (by consent), the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU), as well as the Deputy Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine (by consent) and the Director - administrator of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (by consent).

"The share of the shadow economy in Ukraine is quite high, which negatively affects not only the economy but also the social component. But we have a clear plan to reform the state's relations with business. On the one hand, I hope that the business will grow up independently, become responsible and move to civilized rules of the game. On the other hand, there are various tools to combat the shadow economy. In particular, on August 16 this year, financial agents' reports under the FATCA Agreement began to be accepted. In this way, financial transactions become transparent, thereby contributing to the de-shadowing of the economy," Oleksiy Lyubchenko commented.

Also, the First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy of Ukraine said that to date, financial agents have submitted to the tax service 91 packages of reports on accounts, the ultimate beneficial owners of which are US residents, of which 59 have already been sent to the US Internal Revenue Service.

Background

The Government of Ukraine and the Government of the United States of America have entered into an agreement to improve the implementation of tax rules and the application of the provisions of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Financial agents of Ukraine can submit to the Tax Service through the IDES platform (International Data Exchange Services) reports on accounts opened by US taxpayers in Ukrainian financial institutions. Its main purpose is to prevent the tax evasion of American citizens working in other countries.