Legislative news digest: LEGAL HOTLINE 29.03.2018

New amnesty for unauthorized construction

Amendments have been made to the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development”, which allow a non-term based, free-to-use, acceptance of objects with minor consequences (СС1), constructed on a land plot of the relevant intended use without a permit for execution of construction works. Previously, such a “construction amnesty” operated until 31 December 2015.

The norm applies to residential buildings, garden houses, country houses, as well as household (private) buildings and structures with a total area of up to 300 square meters, constructed from 05.08.1992 to 09.04.2015. It also applies to buildings and structures of agricultural purpose of any area, constructed before 12 March 2011.

Blocking of tax invoices in a new way

The new monitoring system for tax invoices and adjustment calculations involves four steps:

• filtering;
• taxpayer’s risk characteristics presence control;
• compliance monitoring for the indicators determining the payer’s positive tax record;
• transaction risk verification or control of the available “misgrading”.

The filtering properties under which the tax invoice will not be tested for the payer’s risk criterion or transaction risk include transactions for the delivery of goods (services) to the final consumer and/or tax-exempt; the volume of supply is less than UAH 500,000 and if the head directs less than 3 VAT payers; tax burden is more than 3%.

The taxpayer’s risk characteristic criteria include the facts of taxpayer’s registration, stolen, lost documents registered with fake taxpayers etc.
The signs of the positivity of the payer’s record include the homogeneity of the goods and services supplied or produced by the taxpayer; the residual value of the fixed assets of the taxpayer at the end of the reporting period shall be more than UAH 1 mio; the presence of a taxpayer’s owned or leased land with total area of more than 200 hectares, and so on.

The criteria for transaction risks include the lack of licenses for excisable goods registered; inconsistency of the level of goods supplied with the balance of such goods in stock; suspension of adjustment calculations registration for substitution of goods etc.

The end of minor coin era

The National Bank stops additional issue of coins denominated in 1, 2, 5 and 25 kopecks in cash circulation. Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the event of absence of small coins should round out the total sums in cash checks for goods (works, services) and the total amounts of payments in the act on the issue of funds.

That said, rounding up is not a discount or an extra charge, an advertisement or a promotion of the sale of goods (works, services) within the meaning of these terms, defined by the legislation of Ukraine.

Lending restored on the controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions

To restore the opportunities for small and medium businesses with use of borrowing funding on the territory of the anti-terrorist operation, amendments were implemented in the Law of Ukraine “On Interim Measures for the Period of Anti-Terrorist Operation”.

In particular, the moratorium on the collection of mortgage and collateral under agreements, as well as the conclusion of such contracts on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, was canceled.

Moreover, the calculation of fines and penalties for the principal amount of arrears from obligations under credit agreements and loan agreements under contracts concluded after after 1 January 2018, or those which after 01.01.2018, with the consent of the parties, were amended in terms of extension of terms of fulfilment of obligations and/or reduction of interest rates, penalties.

Bankruptcy procedure code is adopted as a basis

In order to improve the restoration procedure for the debtor’s solvency in the draft bancruptcy prodedure Code of Ukraine, the following is proposed:

• introduction of mechanisms for individuals’ solvency restoration;
• introduction of two types of procedures – judicial and pre-trial;
• improvement of the conditions for the participation of secured creditors in bankruptcy procedures, in particular, by allowing to participate in the voting process during decision-making;
• raising the level of protection of the rights of all creditors, in particular by reducing the quorum when re-carrying out the first meeting, if the first attempt failed due to the absence of creditors with the required number of votes, the participation of creditors in the choice of the arbitrator;
• shortening of the terms of case consideration, in particular, by reducing the number of appeals and improving the provisions of the law on the sale of assets of the debtor.

At the moment, the discussion between the legislators and the legal community about the adjustment is being discussed and brought into line with our realities.

Modified non-grocery retail rules

The list of duties of business entities that sell non-food products through the retail chain is expanded.

Vendors in particular are obliged to: inform consumers of the price of the goods, which was established prior to the application of discounts or reduction of prices, conduction of the corresponding sale, and also the price of the goods, established after their beginning; provide the possibility of using electronic payment facilities when making settlements for goods sold or services rendered; in case of revealing of false information about the goods during the week to remove it from the sale and support it with a corresponding information.