Ukraine a Follow-Up on Distributed Profit Tax, BEPS Implementation, Voluntary Disclosure Program, and Indirect Methods for Determining Taxable Income
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IMF Country Report No. 20/302 UKRAINE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE REPORT––A FOLLOW-UP ON November 2020 DISTRIBUTED PROFIT TAX, BEPS IMPLEMENTATION, VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE PROGRAM, AND INDIRECT METHODS FOR DETERMINING TAXABLE INCOME This Technical Assistance Report paper on Ukraine was prepared by a staff team of the International Monetary Fund. It is based on the information available at the time it was completed on September 2020. Copies of this report are available to the public from International Monetary Fund • Publication Services PO Box 92780 • Washington, D.C. 20090 Telephone: (202) 623-7430 • Fax: (202) 623-7201 E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.imf.org Price: $18.00 per printed copy International Monetary Fund Washington, D.C. © 2020 International Monetary Fund ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution FISCAL AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT Ukraine A Follow-Up on Distributed Profit Tax, BEPS Implementation, Voluntary Disclosure Program, and Indirect Methods for Determining Taxable Income Roberto Schatan, Martin Grote, Lee Burns and Oscar Molina Technical Report September 2020 ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS _____________________________________________________________ 4 PREFACE __________________________________________________________________________________________5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY __________________________________________________________________________ 6 I. DISTRIBUTED PROFIT TAX ___________________________________________________________________ 11 A. New Momentum for the Distributed Profit Tax ________________________________________________ 11 B. Compromise Proposals ________________________________________________________________________ 12 II. VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE PROGRAM ______________________________________________________ 15 A. Previous Advice on Draft VDP Legislation _____________________________________________________ 15 B. Policy Attraction of VDPs and General Amnesties _____________________________________________ 17 C. Further Advice on the Draft VDP for Foreign-Held Assets _____________________________________ 20 D. Draft One-Time Asset Declaration for the “Indirect Method” _________________________________ 29 III. INDIRECT METHODS TO ESTIMATE TAXABLE INCOME ___________________________________ 31 A. Indirect Methods and the Perception of Risk __________________________________________________ 31 B. Implementing the Indirect Methods ___________________________________________________________ 33 C. Elements of an Indirect Method _______________________________________________________________ 34 D. General Operational Aspects of the Indirect Method _________________________________________ 36 E. Administrative Issues __________________________________________________________________________ 37 F. The Voluntary Disclosure Program and the Indirect Method __________________________________ 37 IV. INTERNATIONAL TAX MEASURES __________________________________________________________ 39 A. Introduction ___________________________________________________________________________________ 39 B. Place of Effective Management ________________________________________________________________ 39 C. Permanent Establishment (PE) _________________________________________________________________ 43 D. Controlled Foreign Company Rules ___________________________________________________________ 48 E. Indirect Transfer of Immovable Property ______________________________________________________ 59 V. CHANGES TO TRANSFER PRICING REGULATIONS _________________________________________ 61 A. Special Rules for Transfer Pricing of Commodities ____________________________________________ 62 B. Business Restructuring _________________________________________________________________________ 63 C. Business Purpose Test _________________________________________________________________________ 64 D. Thin Cap _______________________________________________________________________________________ 71 E. Special Rules Defining Related Parties and Thin Cap __________________________________________ 73 BOXES 1. Lessons from the South African Exchange Control Amnesty with Supporting Tax Measures __ 24 2. Aspects of the South African Amnesty Legislation that were Difficult to Implement __________ 27 3. Updating Ownership Registers of Immovable Property in lieu of a VDP Process ______________ 30 4. Legislation on Indirect Methods – the Case of Mexico ________________________________________ 35 2 ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution 5. A Basic Formula for an Indirect Method including Cash _______________________________________ 36 6. Disallowing the Deduction of Non-Business Expenses ________________________________________ 66 7. Understanding the Business Purpose Test in Transfer Pricing _________________________________ 67 APPENDICES I. Approaches to Develop and Maintain Up-to-Date Property Cadasters ________________________ 74 II. Mexico’s Legislation on Indirect Method ______________________________________________________ 76 3 ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS AL Arm’s Length ALP Arm’s Length Principle AEOI Automatic Exchange of Information AML Anti-Money Laundering BEPS Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Work Program Organized by the OECD CbC Country-by-Country CFC Controlled Foreign Corporation CPT Corporate Profit Tax or Corporate Income Tax CUP Comparable Uncontrolled Price CUC Controlled Ukraine Company DPT Distributed Profit Tax EBITDA Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization ECT Exit Capital Tax FAD Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF FATF Financial Action Task Force IFRS International Financial Reporting Standards IMF International Monetary Fund MNE Multinational Enterprise MOF Ministry of Finance NBU National Bank of Ukraine OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development PE Permanent Establishment PEM Place of Effective Management PIT Personal Income Tax STS State Tax Service TP Transfer Pricing UAH Ukrainian Hryvnia UN United Nations UTC Ukrainian Tax Code VDP Voluntary Disclosure Program 4 ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution PREFACE In response to a request from the Ministry of Finance, a technical assistance mission from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) delivered a remote mission from Washington, DC, initially programmed for June 30 – July 13, and then extended to July 21, 2020, to review selected international tax issues and advise on a Voluntary Disclosure Program and the Exit Capital Tax. The mission comprised Messrs. Roberto Schatan (mission head), Martin Grote (both from FAD) and Mr. Lee Burns and Mr. Oscar Molina (external experts). The mission presented the aide memoire and explained its recommendations to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Sergii Marchenko. During the mission the team had several rounds of productive (remote) discussions with technical staff of the MoF, headed by the Deputy Minister of Finance Ms. Svitlana Vorobey. The technical staff of the MoF included Messrs. Roman Goptsii and Yevhen Kozlov, Mr Kostiantyn Penskoy, senior tax managers in the Reform Support Team (MoF); Ms. Liudmyla Palamar, Head of the International Taxation Division; Victor Orcharenko, Deputy Head of the Tax Policy Department; Mr Andrii Khomutskii – Head of Personal Income Tax Unit; Ms Olena Markevich – Head of Corporate Income Tax Unit; from the STS: Igor Danylov –Tax Administration Department, Tetiana Radchenko, Tax Audit Division; Mr Viacheslav Krugliak – Deputy Head of Transfer Pricing Division. Also, Ms Olena Diachenko – Director of Directorate General on Economic Policy of the Presidential Office; and Mr Oleg Strynzha – Head of Finance Controlling Department of National Bank of Ukraine participated in the meetings. The mission held video conferences with representatives from the private sector, including the European Business Association, the American Chamber of Commerce, KPMG, Deloitte, EY, PwC and Cargill. The team acknowledges the support received from Mr. Ihor Shpak from the IMF Kiev office. Finally, the mission would like to express its appreciation to Ms. Iryna Krupska for her outstanding interpretation work. 5 ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Tax policy in Ukraine is engaged in two fronts at once. On one front, very significant work has been done over the years on the gradual improvement and updating of the tax system; on the other, it questions essential tenets of the existing system, exploring fundamental changes to it. While serious efforts have been devoted, for example, to the modernization of the international aspects of the income tax, upgrading the regime to OECD standards, there is a strong push from some quarters of the policy debate to do away with the Corporate Profit Tax (CPT) altogether. The central idea is to replace it with a Distributed Profit Tax (DPT), generally referred to in Ukraine as the Exit Capital Tax (ECT). In essence, this system would not tax profits as they accrue to the corporation, deferring the tax to when the corporation distributes dividends to the shareholder. Finding a middle ground does not seem to be a feasible option. In previous reports FAD has argued against the adoption of the ECT: it would lead to a significant loss of revenue, it is fundamentally regressive, it is complex to control, and there is no evidence that it may help growing investment. However, the push to adopt it has not died down, even if adopting it only partially as a