The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted European integration bill No. 7629 ‘On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses Regarding Strengthening Liability in the Field of Collective Bargaining Activities’.
The bill was developed with the aim of implementing the provisions of Law of Ukraine ‘On Collective Agreements and Contracts’ in terms of prosecution for violations of legal requirements during the conclusion and implementation of collective agreements and contracts. The document also takes into account certain provisions of the Council Directive 91/533/EEC of October 14, 1991 on the employer's duty to inform employees about the conditions applicable to the employment contract or employment relationship.
The bill envisages:
- increasing the amount of the fine for certain types of offenses:
- avoidance of participation in collective negotiations – from 10 to 50 of the non-taxable minimum income of citizens (hereinafter – NTMI) (current norm – from 3 to 10);
- failure to provide information necessary for conducting negotiations and monitoring the implementation of agreements, contracts – from 5 to 10 NTMI (current norm – from 1 to 5);
- imposing a fine for failure to provide the employee with information on the conclusion of a collective agreement, amendments and additions to it by persons representing the employer – from 5 to 10 NTMI (currently absent);
- considering by judges of district, district in the city, city or city-district courts of cases about such administrative offenses;
- the right to draw up protocols on these offenses by authorized officials of the central executive body implementing state policy in the field of supervision and control over compliance with labor legislation (State Labor Service).
At the same time, it is proposed not to impose a fine on persons representing employers whose number of employees does not exceed 25 people, and trade unions, when they represent the interests of employees of such employers, for evading participation in collective bargaining, failure to provide information for negotiations and implementation control agreements and contracts.
Adoption of the bill will contribute to strengthening the protection of the rights of employees and employers, their representatives.
The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, by Order No. 303 of April 24, 2023, approved the Criteria for identifying enterprises, institutions and organizations that are important for the national economy in the fields of transport, postal communications, construction and energy efficiency in a special period.
The document specifies 15 criteria for determining enterprises of the specified industries as important for the national economy. Compliance with at least one of the criteria is the basis for making a decision on the definition of an important enterprise.
To confirm compliance with these criteria, the enterprise must provide:
1) a copy of the tax declaration with all attachments, including the mandatory submission of an attachment with the calculation of the total minimum tax liability to:
- tax declaration of the payer of the single tax of the third and/or fourth group for the previous tax (reporting) year;
- tax declaration on corporate income tax for the previous tax (reporting) year.
The specified copies of tax declarations and calculations should be submitted with the marks (stamps) of the supervisory authority that received the tax declaration, indicating the date of its receipt, or a receipt of acceptance of the tax declaration in the case of its submission by means of electronic communication, or a receipt of the supervisory authority entrusted with functions regarding the results of the inspection and acceptance of the package of reporting documents of taxpayers, or by mail with a note of delivery to the controlling body in the case of sending a tax declaration by mail;
2) information on the number of insured persons – employees – a certified copy of the Tax Calculation of the amounts of income accrued (paid) for the benefit of taxpayers – natural persons, and the amounts of tax withheld from them, as well as the amounts of the accrued tax liability for the last reporting period with confirmation by the supervisory authority of acceptance of this Tax calculation.
The National Bank of Ukraine by Resolution No. 59 of May 5, 2023 ‘On Amendments to Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine No. 39 of March 6, 2022’, in accordance with Law of Ukraine ‘On Protection of the Interests of Subjects of Submission of Reports and Other Documents during the Period of Martial Law or War’, extended the period of non-application of sanctions for late submission of financial statements and consolidated financial statements by non-banking institutions for 2023.
In the future, the regulator will not apply sanctions for the untimely submission of financial statements and consolidated financial statements by non-banking institutions in 2023, also due to the gradual implementation by insurers of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts.
From January 1, 2023, International Financial Reporting Standard 17 Insurance Contracts is mandatory in the insurance market. However, in the conditions of martial law, the financial and time resources of insurers, necessary for the development and implementation of new procedures, IT solutions, processes for the purpose of implementing IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts, are limited. At the same time, the majority of insurers have difficulties with the reconfiguration of accounting and IT systems, the availability of qualified personnel for the development of appropriate accounting policies, methods and models for calculating liability under insurance contracts, with changing approaches to the formation of financial statements and the calculation of key indicators.
For insurers who did not have time to implement IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts, the regulator clarified the list of documents that they need to submit in order to obtain a license for a new type of insurance. So, in the package of documents for obtaining a license for a new type of insurance during 2023, insurers must submit:
- reporting defined by the Rules for the preparation and submission of reports by market participants of non-banking financial services to the National Bank of Ukraine, approved by Resolution of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine No. 123 of November 25, 2021 (hereinafter – Rules No. 123) instead of financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS, including IFRS 17 Insurance contracts;
- report of the audit entity, which, according to Law of Ukraine ‘On Audit of Financial Statements and Auditing’, has the right to conduct a mandatory audit of the financial statements of public interest enterprises, on providing assurance regarding the reporting data of the insurer, compiled in accordance with Rules No. 123 as of the last reporting date, prepared in accordance with international auditing standards, instead of the auditor's report on the insurer's annual financial statements or the auditor's report on the review of the insurer's interim financial statements.
The State Tax Service of Ukraine has published new handbooks of benefits as of May 5, 2023, namely:
- Handbook No. 115/1 of tax benefits, which are losses of budget revenues;
- Handbook No. 115/2 of other tax benefits.
In the mentioned handbooks, a list of benefits with their codes and terms of validity is given, in particular, for the corporate income tax; value added tax; land fee; real estate tax; excise tax, local taxes and fees.
We would like to remind you that accounting of the amounts of tax benefits received by business entities is carried out by the supervisory authorities on the basis of the information contained in the tax declarations submitted by such business entities.
The National Bank of Ukraine by Resolution No. 60 of May 5, 2023 ‘On Approval of Regulations on Implementation by the National Bank of Ukraine of Remote Supervision on Payment Market of Non-Bank Payment Service Providers, Providers of Limited Payment Services’ regulated the procedure for remote supervision of the activities of non-bank payment service providers on the payment market and providers of limited payment services.
Remote supervision of the payment market will be carried out to comply with:
- prudential regulations;
- authorization conditions of activity;
- requirements of the legislation regulating the procedure for carrying out payment transactions (except for requirements related to the oversite) and relations between providers and users of payment services;
- requirements of normative legal acts regarding IT security and ensuring the continuity of payment services.
For this purpose, the National Bank regulated the supervisory process, which includes:
- the order of interaction between the regulator and market participants, in particular during the exchange of information and the provision of necessary information, explanations, documents for the purpose of analysis and determination of the need for further supervisory actions;
- the possibility of holding working meetings with representatives of the object of supervision, if necessary, discussing issues arising within the scope of remote supervision;
- based on the results of on-site supervision – initiation of the issue of applying sanctions to the object of supervision in case of violations of the requirements of the legislation regulating activity on the payment market.
The requirements of the regulation will apply to new participants who appeared on the payment market in connection with the implementation of new Law of Ukraine ‘On Payment Services’, namely:
- payment institutions;
- electronic money institutions;
- providers of limited payment services;
- branches of foreign payment institutions;
- financial institutions that have the right to provide payment services;
- postal operators entitled to provide payment services.
