The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning the Recording of Employee Employment in Electronic Form” (draft No. 3623).
The Law introduces the registration of labor activity of an employee in electronic form in the register of insured persons of the State Register of Compulsory State Social Insurance.
The Law regulates the mechanism of accumulation, processing and use of this information, in particular, to confirm the existing length of service and the appointment of pensions.
Relevant amendments have been made to the Labor Code of Ukraine, Fundamentals of Legislation of Ukraine on Compulsory State Social Insurance, Laws of Ukraine “On Collection and Accounting of a Single Contribution for Compulsory State Social Insurance”, “On Compulsory State Pension Insurance”, “On Service in Local Self-Government Bodies”, “On Civil Service” and some other legislative acts.
The law prescribes:
- to establish a five-year transition period for inclusion in the State Register of information from paper employment records on the employee's employment (during this period, both the paper employment record and the electronic form of existing or entered information on employee employment from the State Register will be used);
- to determine that the entry of information on employment in the State Register through the web portal of electronic services of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in the form of scanned or digitized copies of documents provided by law (employment records, certificates, etc.) is carried out by an employee and employer with a qualified electronic signature;
- to establish that after entering information about the employee's employment in the State Register, the employer is obliged to hand over the original paper records to the employee for signature, while the employer is also obliged to enter in the paper employment records at the employee's request the information about hiring, transfer and dismissal;
- to introduce the possibility of automatic appointment of a pension (without personal application by a person) while retaining the right to defer retirement, and if a person postpones the appointment of pension and continues employment, the amount of the pension will increase by 0.5–0.75%. Within the framework of automatic assignment of pensions, it is also possible to determine with the help of the State Register software the most advantageous option for assigning a pension, including the date of such assignment.
Such a reform will create opportunities for:
- reducing the costs of employers for paperwork;
- simplification of access to information on the length of service of employees for the purpose of paying benefits for compulsory state social insurance, especially in the case of temporary disability,
- taking into account data on education and qualifications that the working population has and that young people receive, to ensure the coordination of proposals that exist in the labor market, and planning the training (retraining) of specialists in relevant areas;
- elimination of possible risks and negative consequences of loss of employment record, its physical damage, falsification and introduction of inaccurate information to this document.
However, the final text of the Law has not yet been made public.
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine by Order “On Amendments to Certain Legal Acts of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine” No. 734 of December 2, 2020 (hereinafter – Order No. 734) amended:
- forms of tax invoice and calculation of adjustments to it;
- forms and the Procedure for filling in and submitting tax returns on value added tax (hereinafter – VAT).
This Order will enter into force on the first day of the month following the month of its official publication. The order was published in the newspaper “Official Gazette of Ukraine” No. 8 of February 2, 2021, ie the new forms of documents are valid from March 1.
It should be recalled that according to item 46.6 of the Tax Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Tax Code) to determine the new forms of declarations (calculations), which come into force for reporting for the tax period following the tax period in which they were published, the forms of declarations (calculations) valid until such definition are applied.
The new form should be used for report for March 2021. For reporting for February 2021, the previous form is valid.
From March 1, 2021, tax invoices and adjustment calculations to them (hereinafter – TI/AC) should be registered in a new form (regardless of the date of compilation).
We hope that the State Tax Service will update its software in time and VAT payers will not have problems with registration of TI/AC and submission of reports.
The National Bank of Ukraine by Resolution “On Amendments to the Regulations on Protection Measures and Determining the Procedure for Conducting Certain Transactions in Foreign Currency” No. 14 of February 3, 2021 doubled the e-limit for a number of foreign exchange transactions of individuals to transfer funds abroad or to the accounts of non-resident legal entities, opened in Ukraine – up to 200 thousand euros.
Among such operations:
- investment abroad;
- placement of funds in own foreign accounts;
- transfer of funds under a life insurance contract;
- lending to non-residents.
“According to the National Bank, this decision in the direction of currency liberalization will not have a significant impact on the functioning of the foreign exchange market of Ukraine, including given that individuals for more than a year have the opportunity to freely buy non-cash foreign currency without any obligations and grounds. In 2020, individuals transferred about 274 million euros abroad within the e-limit. This amount is less than the average daily trading volume on the interbank foreign exchange market,” Yurii Heletii, Deputy Governor of the National Bank, said.
The positive situation in the foreign exchange market creates appropriate preconditions for the gradual liberalization of currency regulation, the next step of which is to increase the relevant e-limit.
Complete removal of the e-limit for individuals to invest abroad is one of the priorities of the National Bank, provided by the Roadmap for currency liberalization. This will be possible after the final adoption and implementation of the package of bills on combating BEPS (Plan to combat the base erosion and profit shifting).
The National Bank also continues to promote the use of digital analogues of paper documents. To this end, banks and non-bank financial institutions are allowed to use digital passports in the “Diya” mobile application when conducting foreign exchange transactions with individuals, provided that the necessary technological capabilities are available.
The State Labor Service of Ukraine has clarified whether it is possible to reinstate an employee who informed her employer of her pregnancy after dismissal.
In accordance with Part 3 Art. 184 of the Labor Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Labor Code) dismissal of pregnant women on the initiative of the owner is not allowed, except in cases of complete liquidation of the enterprise, institution, organization, when dismissal with compulsory employment is allowed.
Compulsory employment of pregnant women is carried out in cases of their dismissal after the expiration of the fixed-term employment contract.
For the period of employment, they retain the average salary, but not more than three months from the date of termination of the fixed-term employment contract.
There is no time gap between dismissal and employment.
If a pregnant woman, without notifying the employer of her pregnancy and without providing a certificate from a medical institution, voluntarily wrote an application for dismissal with the consent of the parties (Part 1 Art. 36 of the Labor Code), and then decided to return to work, arguing that she was illegally fired, then according to Art. 235 of the Labor Code, the basis for reinstatement of an employee is her dismissal without legal grounds.
Therefore, only an illegally dismissed employee may be reinstated in violation of the procedure or outside the grounds provided by law, or in the absence of grounds for dismissal.
If the employee is duly dismissed, following the dismissal procedure, there are no grounds for her reinstatement.
In order to establish the authenticity of the signature on the application for dismissal, it is necessary to apply to the competent authorities, which are empowered to conduct an examination of the documents to establish their authenticity.
We emphasize that this explanation does not establish the rules of law, but is for informational purposes only.
