The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on establishing a minimum term of lease of agricultural land plots, where hydrotechnical amelioration to be held” of 20.09.16, № 1532-VIII, having established that the conduction of the commercial agriculture production, farming, personal farming term, the lease of agricultural land plots of which is ground areas of ameliorated land and where hydrotechnical amelioration to be held, should not be less than 10 years.
Land lease agreement should establish the obligation of the tenant to invest in the development and modernization of appropriate drainage systems and engineering infrastructure facilities and promote their proper use.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine on the legal plot of land lots, owners of which died” of 20.09.2016, № 1533-VIII, intended to regulate some aspects of the legal plot of land lots, owners of which died.
The document, in particular, provides for that in case of absence of heirs or executor trustee of heritage, which includes a land plot, is rural, village, city council at the location of such a land plot. This local council - manager will be entitled to hand over a land plot to rent up to the date of state registration of ownership of the heir to that plot or before the entry into force of a court decision on acknowledgment heritage as escheat.
Immovable property, which is a part of escheat, should be passed into ownership of the territorial community on the location of the immovable property (not to the territorial community of the place of opening the inheritance, as it was before).
The law comes into force on the day following the day of its publication, except for paragraph 7 of section I of this Law, which takes effect on January 1, 2017.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine by its Resolution “On Amendments to the Procedure for state registration (re-registration), deregistration of cars, buses, and self-propelled vehicles constructed on chassis of cars, motorbikes of all types, brands and models, trailers, semi-trailers, sidecars, and other equal to them vehicles and scooters” of 05.10.16, № 687 defended the rights of motor vehicle owners who lost their cars or motorbikes. In particular, if there is information about the arrest or search of the vehicle, its registration should not be conducted.
Verification of compliance with the construction, the fact of car search, restrictions on its alienation should be carried out in automated database about wanted vehicles, the data bank of the General Secretariat of Interpol, the State Register of movable property encumbrances. Also, it should be verified the information about documents confirming identity and citizenship of Ukraine, and the registration of residence for the Unified State Register of demographic.
It is forbidden deregistration and/or re-register in the name of a new owner of vehicles that are wanted or about which the Unified State Register of MIA has information about arrest or prohibition of deregistration and/or re-registration on the basis a court decision or regulation of the state enforcement officer.
In order to deregister or re-register a vehicle in the name of a new owner, regarding which there is information about alienation restrictions in the State Register of Encumbrances of movable property, it is required to get the written consent of encumbrancer (mortgagee). However, this does not apply to cases of transfer of ownership of the vehicle in inheritance, succession or allocation of shares in the joint property.
The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine in its letter “On adjusting of financial results before tax in the amount of transferred funds to non-profit organizations” of 16.09.16, № 20223/6/99-99-15-02-02-15 explained how the taxpayer of the income tax should adjust the financial result before tax at the request of sub-para. 140.5.9 of the Tax Code of Ukraine (hereinafter − TCU) during the transfer of goods (works, services) and funds to non-profit organizations and institutions if the financial results of the previous reporting year of such providers was negative. According to the tax authorities, if the subject to income tax was absent in the previous year, the financial result before tax of current year should be increased to the full amount of free delivered funds (goods and services), to non-profit organizations.
The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine by its letter “On the use of cash register” of 17.08.16, № 17922/6/99-99-14-05-01-15 clarified the situation concerning registration of settlement documents in the case of delivery by courier service. Consequently, the goods seller should provide to the buyer the delivery of settlement document (check) earlier printed together with the purchased goods through courier services (postal service), which could be either third-party organization, and the structural unit of the seller.
Also, the settlement document (check) could be provided to the buyer by courier (postal service) during the transfer to the buyer of the purchased goods and payment of the funds for its purchase. In this case a payment document (check) should be printed using the cash register registered by name of this courier (postal service).
The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine by its letter “On the procedure for taxation of VAT transactions of the taxpayers with the free transfer of goods (gifts for the holidays and corporate events) to their employees” of 05.09.16, № 19171/6/99-99-15-03-02-15 reported that compensating value added tax (hereinafter − VAT) was not required to be accrued on the transfer of gifts to employees for holidays and corporate events. At the same time, it is necessary to accrue the VAT only once - in view of the tax base.
The tax authorities do not mention that the free transfer of goods should be “within the limits of economic activity”. Instead, they call the free transaction of supply as the subject to VAT.
It should be recalled that recently fiscals expressed unexpected position, during free deliveries of goods/services tax liabilities arise only once − in view of the tax base, and conditional VAT should not be accrued.
The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine in its letter “On VAT taxation of compensation for land rent” of 13.09.16, № 19853/6/99-99-15-03-02-15 stated its opinion in favor of the imposition of VAT on compensation amount of the land tax, which tenant paid to the landlord. The tax authorities called such compensation as a part of the tax base under para. 185.1 of TCU.
As is known, since the beginning of this year there are explanations of the controllers that such compensation of utilities, the land tax, the tax on real property received by the landlord from the tenant, are not the subject to tax, therefore, the VAT should not be accrued on them.
Subsequently, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine (hereinafter − SFSU) changed its position to traditional, and agreed with the accrual of VAT on compensation of utilities, didn’t directly expressed its approach to tax compensation of the land tax.
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine in its letter “On Presentation of Financial Statements” of 14.08.16, № 31-11410-07-10/23534 reminded that the accounting policy should be normally changed since the beginning of the year. But it also could be done in the middle of the year, if:
- statutory requirements are changed;
- requirements of authority, which approves regulations (standards) of accounting, are changed;
- changes provide accurate reflection of events or transactions in the financial statements of the company.
Regulatory document on accounting policies could be accept as a basic for time of the company activities, which could be amended about definite time if necessary.
The National Bank of Ukraine (hereinafter − NBU) by its resolution “On amendments to certain legislative acts of the National Bank of Ukraine” of 13.10.16, № 391 improved the methodology for calculating of the official hryvnia exchange rate to US dollar, based on which official exchange rates of hryvnia to be calculated to other foreign currencies.
Heretofore, official exchange rate was calculated as average rate of buyers and sellers. In other words, it reflected the rate of transactions between banks, banks and their customers, the banks and the National Bank, the National Bank and its clients. Further, the calculation will include only agreement between the banks, and the banks and the NBU.
The National Bank will daily establish the official hryvnia rate to:
- currencies of 30 countries of major trading partners of Ukraine on the results of the first half of 2016 (including 20 currencies included in Group I of the Classifier of foreign currencies and precious metals, approved by the NBU of 04.02.98, № 34, hereinafter – Classifier);
- other four currencies of Group I of the Classifier, which are not currency of key trading partners;
- four banking metals.
Currently, the National Bank daily establishes official hryvnia rate to 25 foreign currencies included in Group I of the Classifier and the list of major trading partners and four banking metals.
The State Statistics Service of Ukraine in its letter “On the assignment of the loan amount, which according to the decision of the management is not refundable by the employee, to the labor remuneration fund” of 08.06.16, № 09.4-12/147-16 concluded that the amount of borrowing by a decision of the management to be not refundable by the employee, assigned to the labor remuneration fund in a part of other incentive and compensation payments. It is explained by the criterion of crediting of certain payment to wages and not to other items of expenditure, is the possibility to use by the employee of certain type of goods (services) for personal needs or the needs of other family members and the employer gives them in order to attract and retain labor force.
