EBA supports reduction of tax on profit for IT sector to 5%
Kyiv, January 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) –The IT committee of the European Business Association (EBA) has proposed to reduce the tax on profit to 5% for IT companies, the head of the IT committee at the EBA, Volodymyr Bek, said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
The committee believes that some amendments to draft laws initiating an economic experiment on the creation of favorable conditions for the development of the software industry should be made (Nos. 8267 and 8268).
The EBA committee proposes to set the tax on profit at 5% for experiment participants (the draft law foresees 16%) and the tax on the incomes of individuals at no more than 5% (the draft says 10%).
The committee also said that it is appropriate to make only the State Tax Service responsible for the administration and supervision of the special tax regime, while the above-mentioned bills says that a central executive power body for science, innovation and informatization of Ukraine should draw up criteria and supervise the experiment.
"The involvement of many bodies could jeopardize the achievement of the key goal of the law initiatives – the promotion of the development of the IT sector in Ukraine, and they are not in line with the principle of deregulation declared in a program of economic reforms of the Ukrainian president," representatives of the association said.
In addition, the EBA supports the idea of an indefinite time period for the experiment, while the two drafts propose to restrict it to a period of five years.
The committee said that if all proposals were approved, in 2012 one could expect a rise of income in the IT sector's budget of UAH 180 million.
As reported, the Ukrainian parliament on December 22, 2011, passed at first reading one of the two draft laws on the experiment to create favorable conditions for the IT sector.