Businesses may receive more opportunities to protect themselves from the State Tax Service

The Government has approved a draft law that could substantially change the rules for administrative appeals in tax disputes.

This includes a particularly important change for businesses.

Currently, within the procedure provided for by the Tax Code, a taxpayer primarily challenges decisions made by the supervisory authority.

The draft law proposes allowing taxpayers to challenge not only decisions, but also the actions and inaction of the tax authority.

Why is this important?
Because a business problem does not always begin with a tax assessment notice. The tax authority may delay a procedure, fail to take necessary action, or act in a way that already disrupts the company’s normal operations.

Businesses are therefore proposed to receive an additional legal tool to respond before a situation escalates into a full-scale tax dispute.

There are other important changes as well.
For most decisions of the State Tax Service, the proposed time limit for an administrative appeal would increase from 10 working days to 30 calendar days.

At the same time, the 10-working-day limit would remain in place for tax assessment notices. This is an important distinction: businesses should not mistakenly rely on the new 30-day period in disputes concerning tax assessment notices.

A separate time limit is proposed for challenging the tax authority’s inaction: no later than six months from the date on which the taxpayer became aware of that inaction.

However, this is still a draft law approved by the Government, not yet effective legislation. The document must still go through the parliamentary process.

For businesses, the overall direction of these changes is positive: the earlier a company can legally respond to unlawful actions or inaction by a supervisory authority, the greater the chance of resolving the issue before additional tax assessments, operational disruptions, or court proceedings arise.

Primary source: official announcements of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.

WINNER Law Firm supports clients during tax audits, prepares objections and appeals, challenges tax assessment notices and the actions of supervisory authorities, and protects businesses in tax disputes.

📞 096 574 81 02
📧 info@uk-winner.com

You can seek legal services now, so that you do not later need to seek legal representation in court.

Author: Ihor Yasko, Managing Partner of WINNER Law Firm, PhD in Law.