Cutting the term for the return of earnings in currency to the country to 90 days is a violation of the freedom of agreement relations foreseen in civil legislation, and fines imposed by tax bodies for violations of these terms could be challenged. Cutting the term for the return of earnings in currency to the country to 90 days is a violation of the freedom of agreement relations foreseen in civil legislation, and fines imposed by tax bodies for violations of these terms could be challenged, lawyers have said.

In particular, challenges could be based on the appearance of circumstance of force majeure, and the most effective way to avoid fines is to reach agreements with foreign partners, lawyers said.

The lawyers gave their views at a roundtable held at Interfax-Ukraine onDec. 1on the law on overcoming the effects of the financial crisis, which took effect on November 24, 2009. The requirement foresees the cutting of the term for the return of earnings in currency to the country from 180 to 90 days.

"If the requirement is introduced, Ukrainian businessmen have two options: to pay fines or to prove to the tax bodies in court that there were circumstances of force majeure, which free them from responsibility," a managing partner of the Ol&Rust law firm, Roman Khrustenko said.

He said that litigation would have no prospects. If the sides agree that payments are made within 180 days, amendments to contracts could be made only as gestures of good will.

In turn, a partner of the Pavlenko and Poberezhniuk Law Group, Larysa Poberezhniuk, said that the cut of the said terms of contracts is a violation of agreement freedom, which is foreseen in civil legislation.

She said that the state is interfering in private relations under the said law.

Poberezhniuk said that one option for meeting the requirement regarding contracts that were signed before the law took effect, could be its non-application to such contracts and the cancellation or cutting of fines to the size of the discount rate of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

According to the law onthea procedure for payments in foreign currency, the fine for violating the term for returning earnings in currency to Ukraine is 0.3% of the sum in foreign currency calculated in hryvnias. The total size of penalty fees cannot exceed the sum of earnings.

In turn, the first deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee for finance and banking activities and the chairman of the council of the Association of Ukrainian Banks, Stanyslav Arzhevitin, said that it is expected that next week explanations from the Justice Ministry and the NBU on the requirement to cut the term for returning earnings in currency, with regard to export and import contract that were signed before the law took effect, will be issued.