The introduction from July 1 of a progressive scale of taxation for passive income exceeding Hr 20,000 per year at a rate of 15-25% could result in an outflow of deposits from the banking system, which will affect the liquidity of financial institutions, bankers polled by Interfax-Ukraine have said.
“The taxation of passive income, without a doubt, will increase revenues to
the national budget, but the depositors of banks, who placed their money for a
year or more, will once again be cheated. The volume of deposits in the banking
system will decrease by about 15-20% in the first two years and might recover
only during the third year,” the first deputy chairman of Prominvestbank,
Viacheslav Yutkin, said.
According to him, this innovation could lead to deterioration in the
liquidity of banks, especially in the second half of 2014.
Deputy chairman of Ukrinbank Zhanna Makeyenko supports the view.
“To increase budget revenues, this mechanism could be very effective.
However, in my opinion, tax rates under a progressive scale are somewhat
overstated, which can play a cruel joke and not satisfy the expectations for
revenues to the budget, and entail an outflow of deposits from banks. I think
the reaction of citizens would be more relaxed regarding the implementation of a
single tax rate regardless of the amount of interest income,” the expert
said.
The head of the savings and payments department at Ukrsotsbank, Olha Shostak,
in turn, noted that the introduction of a progressive tax scale of taxation for
passive income could contribute to filling the budget, but this year is not the
most appropriate time for such drastic measures.
