The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine has limited powers to investigate the financial transactions of this type of companies because of very strict bank secrecy laws and they should be softened, the experts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have said.
“A decisive push against an expanding informal sector would require softening bank secrecy laws, for example, requiring only the intermediation of the central bank to obtain the information,” the IMF said in a report published on February 8 and entitled “Technical assistance report – reducing social security contributions and improving the corporate and small business tax system.”
The report is based on information that was available at the time it was completed on October 2015.
The experts said that today the State Fiscal Service can obtain bank statements only with a court order and the information so obtained is restricted generally to general account balances.
“To the extent that Ukraine signs on to ongoing international efforts to expand bilateral and multilateral exchange of information for tax purposes, it will also have to ensure that it has access to such information — including bank account information — for the purpose of sharing it with partner countries,” the IMF said.
