The European Business Association supports the abolition of the exemption from paying value added tax on imported goods worth up to 150 euros. This is stated in the official letter of the Association to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Getmantsev.
The EBA’s position is based on the belief that the current regulation leaves numerous opportunities for unscrupulous entrepreneurs to evade VAT. This includes, for example, dividing an order into several parcels, changing the value of goods, and importing industrial quantities of goods in accompanied and unaccompanied baggage.
“According to a study by the Institute for Socio-Economic Transformation, among the 100 largest recipients of international postal items, 81 individuals received a total of 18,765 parcels in 9 months of 2024, or an average of 232 parcels per person. None of them exceeded the value of 150 euros, and accordingly, such parcels were exempt from VAT. Under such conditions, one individual, receiving only one postal item per day, can import goods worth up to 4.5 thousand euros in a month without taxation. Therefore, we are talking about industrial batches of goods, which are actually exempt from taxation,” the appeal states.
According to the business community, the current preferential taxation regime for small batches of goods distorts competitive conditions in the domestic market, creating more favorable tax and customs conditions for foreign manufacturers and marketplaces. In addition, according to the study, due to the existence of this tax benefit, the state budget has not received at least 11.8 billion UAH in VAT revenues for 2024. Revenues from customs payments from such goods could amount to at least half of this amount. In addition, Ukraine is gradually harmonizing its own tax and customs legislation with the norms of the European Union.
The Association recalled that in the EU, the VAT exemption for low-value parcels (up to 22 euros) was abolished in 2021, and the regulation of customs payments is in the process of improvement, with a tendency towards mandatory declaration of all parcels regardless of their value. According to the Association’s member companies, this has led to a significant increase in VAT revenues in EU countries, and also contributed to the growth of tax revenues from residents, who gained an advantage in competition with foreign marketplaces.
At the same time, EBA experts understand the need to simplify the customs clearance procedure for parcels that are or will be subject to taxation in order to avoid delays in the delivery of any parcels to Ukraine. The letter separately emphasizes the need to ensure further unhindered imports for the Ukrainian defense forces.
The Association was actively involved in the development of draft laws on this issue. At the same time, experts expressed their comments on the documents in terms of simplifying the customs clearance procedure, ensuring an effective mechanism for controlling abuse by unscrupulous entrepreneurs, and establishing clear deadlines for implementing the provisions of the draft laws. The Association added that they would carefully review the text of the draft laws and, if necessary, participate in their revision in order to help avoid abuses and at the same time simplify the process of ordering goods from abroad for citizens and the defense forces as much as possible.
