Co-founder of the NGO «Technologies of Progress», former head of the State Customs Service Maksym Nefyodov sees three possible ways to tax parcels from international marketplaces, if the Verkhovna Rada does decide to abolish the current preferential threshold for such shipments of 150 euros.
Co-founder of the NGO «Technologies of Progress», former head of the State Customs Service Maksym Nefyodov sees three possible ways to tax parcels from international marketplaces, if the Verkhovna Rada does decide to abolish the current preferential threshold for such shipments of 150 euros.
Nefyodov spoke about this on the «EshOs» podcast on the Strimco YouTube channel.
He sees the least likely and most problematic option as processing tax payments through Customs in each individual case.
«Of course, taxing by taking documents to Customs 75 million times is madness for both Customs and citizens. There are now certain electronic services that citizens can theoretically use to arrange something on their own, but statistics show that these services are not customer-oriented — in a year and a half, they were used a little more than 3,000 times,» Nefyodov noted.
The expert sees a realistic option as additional tax collection directly at postal operator offices when delivering parcels, which is already in operation if the value of the goods in this parcel exceeds 150 euros.
«The option remains to do this through postal express operators — Ukrposhta, Nova Poshta, Meest and international players — for example, DHL. The carrier itself can take this functionality at your request. You pay this amount when you pick up your parcel at the branch. This mechanism will remain, and it is quite effective. The operators themselves say that they will be able to increase its throughput by 10 times,» added the co-founder of the NGO «Technologies of Progress.»
But the most likely option, given that Ukraine is moving towards the EU and synchronizing its legislation with European legislation, Maksym Nefyodov sees the third option as one in which the amount of taxes will already be added to the price of the product on the marketplace itself, and then these funds will be returned to Ukraine based on intergovernmental agreements.
«In Europe, the main method is a different one. You buy something in a store, and this store, depending on where the goods need to be sent, calculates taxes itself, takes them from you, and then transfers them to this country through some authorized representative… Such a mechanism is planned to be applied in Ukraine, but it does not exist yet. We are all fighting for it to appear,» Nefyodov explained.
As dev.ua wrote, on May 26, the people’s deputies did not support amendments to bill No. 12360, which provided for changes to the Customs Code regarding the taxation of international shipments. Nevertheless, the issue of taxation of international parcels remains relevant for the government and has not completely disappeared from the «agenda».
