(Text after paragraph five in news item issued on Nov 23 has been added) KYIV. Nov 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukraine could improve its position in the next Paying Taxes global annual ranking, which is a joint project of PwC and the World Bank Group. Partner of PwC Ukraine Viacheslav Vlasov said this at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. "To change the situation, it is not necessarily to amend the Tax Code. Much depends on the Ministry of Finance and the State Fiscal Service in improving administration. For example, improvement of those electronic services that are available to businesses in Ukraine," he said. According to the recently released data of the Paying Taxes 2017 ranking, Ukraine ranked 84th (Bulgaria ranked 83rd, Barbados 85th, Russia 45th, Poland 47th, Belarus 99th) among 190 countries, losing one position compared to the previous year. The study was based on data from 2015. According to Vlasov, elimination of paper document turnover, return to annual financial statements (from quarterly) on income tax, simplification of tax return forms will contribute to improvement of the country's position. It is appropriate to introduce payment of personal income tax only once a month, not for each payment operation, stop using tax invoices that only duplicate the companies' business files and improve the quality of software for submitting tax reports. Among modern global trends is a slight reduction of the general tax burden and the number of payments: despite crisis trends in the global economy, not all countries cut tax rates. According to the study, the time to comply with consumption taxes had fallen. "On average around the world in 2015 our case study company paid taxes amounting to 40.6% of its commercial profit, took 251 hours to prepare, file and pay its three main taxes and had a number of payments sub-indicator of 25.0. The averages for these three Paying Taxes sub-indicators have continued to fall in the most recent year," PwC said, showing in the table that total tax rate fell by 0.1 percentage points, time to comply by 8 hours and number of payments – by 0.8. This year, for the first time, the Paying Taxes study, being 11th for PwC and the World Bank, looked at two post-filing processes. With it Ukraine would have been 111th losing four positions compared to the previous study. As for Ukraine's position among 19 Central Asia and Eastern Europe countries, in total tax rate Ukraine is 16th with 51.9% (with labor taxes of 43.1% and 18.9% in Europe and Central Asia), while Macedonia is first with 13%. Total Tax Rate is the measure of tax cost, the total of all taxes borne as a percentage of commercial profit. The figure does not take into account the large reduction of single social security tax in 2016. In this group of countries Ukraine is 18th in time to comply with taxes with 356 hours, while Macedonia is the leader with 119 hours. Ukraine's indicator worsened by 9.5 hours compared to the previous figures mainly due to the increase in the time spent for drawing up VAT reports. "The rating shows one thing from one year to the next that arouses alarm. This is the time to comply with tax rules business spends in Ukraine. It is more than in the rest of the countries," Vlasov said. According to PwC, the introduction of the full-featured e-cabinet of taxpayers, the common database of tax consultations, improvement of the e-administration of VAT planned by the government would improve the conditions for doing business in Ukraine and the country's position in the tax rating. However, the expected complication of tax invoices (the introduction of goods or service codes), the introduction of the tax invoice registration temporary suspension scheme without clear rules for checking the tax invoices and the possibility of returning prepaid VAT to the state would worsen Ukraine's position. According to PwC materials, the time to obtain a VAT refund in Ukraine is 28.2 weeks, while average figure for Eastern Europe and Central Asia is 19.3 weeks.