New Rules on Registration of business in Ukraine

January 2016

The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko recently approved amendments to the Tax Code to simplify the business environment.

This was announced at the official website of the Verkhovna Rada on May 8th, 2015.

Law № 344-VIII was designed to reduce the number of procedures and time needed for business registration. The law changed the article 69 CLE – introduced the principle of tacit agreement in the field of taxation. This includes opening and closing of accounts of taxpayers at banks and financial institutions. The main purpose of the law is the deregulation of economic activity, by analogy with the European legislation and in the future to improve the country’s position in the international ranking “Doing Business” on the indicator “Register of enterprises” in 2016.

In particular, according to the Law of Ukraine № 191-VIII, there will be a simplified procedure for opening businesses, will have limited impact on government agencies on businesses; the permissions and approvals required will be reduced, the level of investor protection will be increased and they will put in place an improved funding mechanism for the activities of the State Registration Service.

Let us also remind you that on October 16th, orders of the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Finance came into effect on electronic online exchange of information between agencies, under which it eliminates the need for businessmen to contact with officials DFS.
Thus, as of April 2015 all the necessary data in the form of excerpts, certificates or extracts from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individuals – Entrepreneurs, the Public Authorities, as well as participants of civil turnover can electronically recover such information through the website of the Ministry Justice of Ukraine.

Each generated electronic document has the same official status as its paper counterparts and it will be assigned a unique number. Period of validity of the document will be determined by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. The electronic documents shall have the same legal force as paper. You will also be able to re-download the document by using its unique number, which also confirms its validity.

For obtaining information from the United State Registrar in electronic format, it is not required to attend the state registrar and banking institutions.

Moreover, if the documents are to be submitted to the registration office, then this can be done at any registration office on the territory of Ukraine, irrespective of the place of registration of the person. Furthermore each registration office provides free legal support for those who want to register a legal entity if needed and it is free of charge.

It has been claimed that the above statements have reduced the time required and all the procedures require only 10 minutes to be completed and supervisory authority is obliged within 1 working day after getting the registration documents put them in the register of taxpayer’s registration records. This is indeed a significant step forward in simplifying the business procedure and the attempts of Ukraine to earn a higher place in the rankings of doing business.