MinFin together with Tax Parliament Committee Agreed to Expand Cooperation with OECD in Development of Tax Policy

On July 11, the Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine Svitlana Vorobei and the Chairman of the Parliament Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev, assisted by the Reforms Project Office under the Ministry of Finance, held an online meeting with the Head of Global Relations and Development Division of the Tax Policy and Administration Center Ben Dickinson, with the participation of Senior Advisor to the Human Resources Development Group for BEPS Practices in the Office of Global Affairs and Development of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration Thomas Balko.

During the meeting, participants discussed Ukraine's progress toward implementing BEPS action plan measures throughout 2019-2021 in the tax policy arena. Svitlana Vorobei noted the importance of the support of OECD experts that has been provided over the years in the preparation of relevant regulations, and also proved invaluable in the preparation of clarifications, in particular, the generalized tax advice in 2021. "The challenge for Ukraine in the medium and long term is the need to bring Ukraine's tax legislation closer to EU legislation which is in constant development, which requires an understanding of modern concepts for reforming the international tax system for large businesses", - she emphasized.

As Danylo Hetmantsev noted, further work on the implementation of OECD standards, in particular, in the part of transparency and automatic exchange of information for tax purposes, remains a priority in the legislative work. At the same time, in his opinion, the pace and scope of implementation of such initiatives should also take into account the challenges faced by Ukraine due to the armed aggression of Russia.

Ben Dickinson noted the rapid progress of Ukraine as compared to other countries implementing similar measures and confirmed his readiness to expand the expert support of the OECD and the Global Forum on Tax Policy in Ukraine.

The participants of the meeting agreed to involve OECD experts in finalizing the draft of the Recovery Plan for Ukraine regarding the issues already included in the document (in particular, the development of the personal income taxation model, ecological taxation, extension of powers of local authorities in administering local taxes and fees, etc.).

The OECD experts also expressed their willingness to assist in the introduction of measures to develop the human resources of the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Service and improve their qualifications.