Parliament rejects digital platform taxation bill that is structural beacon of IMF program
Parliament rejected a bill Monday on taxing income earned through digital platforms. The bill, No. 14025, was voted down during a plenary session.
According to a broadcast of Tuesday’s plenary session, 168 lawmakers supported the bill "On Banks and Banking" to implement international automatic exchange of information about income earned through digital platforms — short of the required 226 votes for second reading approval with revisions. Proposals for a repeat first reading and return to the government for revision also failed.
"According to the bill, information about residents’ income earned through digital platforms will be transmitted to the State Tax Service. Importantly, such income is currently taxed at 18%. We propose making it 5%," Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said during parliamentary consideration of the bill.
Marchenko said the tax minimum would be set at UAH 38,500.
Adoption of the bill was initially a prior action and later became a structural beacon of the International Monetary Fund’s new financing program.
Lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak (Holos faction) noted the government planned to submit amendments for the second reading that are other IMF program structural beacons: eliminating the 150-euro exemption on parcels, introducing value-added tax for individual entrepreneurs and extending the 5% wartime levy beyond martial law.
"This bill isn’t about platforms. It will become one big beautiful deal," Zhelezniak said.
He added that business associations requested passage of the bill, including the European Business Association, American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Ukrainian Business Council and Federation of Employers of Ukraine.
Services including Uklon, Bolt, Uber and Glovo publicly supported bills No. 14025 and No. 14026, which provide for automatic exchange of information about income earned through digital platforms.