Hetmančev exposes tax evasion schemes in retail networks of Western Ukraine
Danylo Hetmančev, head of the Verkhovna Rada’s tax committee, made a pointed statement regarding suspicious operations within the popular retail chain ‘Tano,’ which operates actively in Chernivtsi and Ternopil regions.
According to the parliamentarian, the network is organized in a way that allows it to avoid full tax payments by employing a cunning scheme involving individual entrepreneurs (FOPs).
He explained that the stores facilitate services from multiple FOPs who sell excise goods under various brands.
These entrepreneurs frequently change their status to stay below the seven-million hryvnia annual revenue limit, a threshold for large businesses, thus engaging in manipulative practices to evade taxes.
Such schemes are blatant abuses and distortions, as the main intent of the simplified tax system was to support small entrepreneurs, not large corporations masquerading as small businesses.
Hetmančev added that his team verified several stores, discovering that some outlets issued different receipts to different FOPs, which could indicate a system of dividing income to reduce tax liabilities.
In these schemes, a single FOP might pay as little as four thousand hryvnias in taxes, while a lawful operation without such schemes would pay around 300 thousand hryvnias.
This tax minimization preserves the profit margins for the business owners but does not reduce retail prices for consumers.
In the first quarter of 2025, the top ten fuel retail networks with the most stations paid over three billion hryvnias in operational taxes, which is 2.5 times more than the same period in 2023 and 1.5 times higher than in 2024.
Further details are available in Sergey Kuyun’s article from ‘Consulting Group A-95’ titled ‘Fuel Retailers Forced to Pay Taxes.
The Results Are Impressive.’