Tax legislation of Ukraine under the conditions of martial law

Abstract

Introduction. The full-scale war launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine on February 24, 2022 immediately had a negative impact on all areas of society. The situation that has developed required urgent measures of the state in terms of regulating the issues of ensuring the provision of minimum public services and business support, including the anti-crisis tax regulation. Problem Statement. In response to the challenges, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a number of laws that eased the tax burden, eliminated the tax consequences of various support operations for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and persons affected by the consequences of the war. At the same time, the adopted innovations liberalized the tax system of Ukraine and endangered its fiscal security. Purpose. Critical expert analysis of tax legislation innovations adopted during the period of martial law and the formation of proposals for its adjustment in the conditions of war and post-war recovery. Methods. The following general scientific and special methods were used in the research process: logical analysis, synthesis, expert evaluation, description, comparison, theoretical generalization and abstract-logical. Results. Most of the adopted norms of tax legislation in the conditions of martial law do not contain financial and economic justification, were adopted on the basis of subjective judgments and did not have a regulatory effect. Instead, the martial law tax reform significantly reduced the fiscal function of taxes and created the conditions for abuse by dishonest taxpayers. Conclusions. The way out of the economic crisis caused by the war requires systemic state regulation. And tax instruments should play an important role in this system. At the same time, anti-crisis tax regulation must take into account a number of factors, among which the key factors are the fiscal needs of the state, the formation of a favorable business environment, the standards of tax compliance prescribed in the directives of the EU Council, and the military situation in the country. Further anti-crisis tax regulation in Ukraine is proposed to be considered under two scenarios: favorable (quick end of hostilities and transition to post-war recovery); negative (prolonged military actions of the aggressor country and the transition to the frozen conflict phase). Proposals for improvement of tax legislation based on the above scenarios have been formulated.