PHОТО: SHUTTERSTOCK

The promise of the government to introduce taxes on luxury items turned out to be nothing more than an empty threat. Deputy Finance Minister Tetyana Yefymenko announced “expedient” sizes of the tax on the key indicators of a citizen’s well-being that is the simplest for taxation – homes: UAH 10 per year per 1 square meter for homes with an overall space of over 100 sq. m. in cities and over 200-250 sq. m. in rural areas. Those who have smaller homes will not have to pay the tax.

“A real estate tax exists in around 130 countries, where proceeds from this tax account for 1-10% of all tax proceeds. Assistant Chief-of-Staff of the Presidential Administration Iryna Akimova says the president insists on introducing the real estate tax. In short, the draft of the Tax Code currently under revision is likely to include this tax, but only as specified by Yefimenko and not much higher,” says partner of the Prioritet Law Center Darya Havrylytsa. “Therefore, an owner of a 200 sq. m. piece of property in the center of Kyiv will be paying UAH 2,000 per year or UAH 170 per month. This was to be expected since our government is still not ready to charge itself sensitive taxes.”