More than 60% of Ukrainians oppose tax authorities having access to bank secrecy without a court decision - survey

More than 60% of Ukrainians oppose the abolition of the ban on disclosing bank secrecy to tax authorities about the availability and movement of funds in the accounts of the debtor (taxpayer) without a court decision. This was reported by the Center for Social and Economic Research CASE Ukraine, UNN reports.

"About 63.3% of Ukrainians do not support the idea of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine to provide tax authorities with access to bank secrecy without a court decision. [Only 30% of respondents support the proposal of the Ministry of Finance in one way or another", - it is said in message.

In addition, about 75.3% of Ukrainians do not support the idea of the Ministry of Finance to give tax authorities the right to collect tax debts without a court decision.

Only 20.6% of respondents support this proposal in one way or another.

According to Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy , the expansion of tax authorities' powers over bank secrecy may increase fiscal pressure on Ukrainians.

"Today, the tax authorities have such a low level of public trust that expanding their powers regarding bank secrecy could lead to increased  fiscal pressure on every Ukrainian and increased corruption risks. The situation with the business climate in the country is proof of this," Yuzhanina said in her Telegram channel.

The survey was conducted from February 5 to March 4, 2024.  Based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers, 2008 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed.  The sample did not include residents of the temporarily occupied territories and  citizens who left the country after February 24, 2022.  The statistical error of the sample does not exceed 2.4%. 

Add

Viktor Bobyrenko, head of the expert group of the Bureau of Policy Analysis, in a comment to UNN noted that the opening of banking secrecy to the tax authorities would lead to a decrease in the number of money transfers, including donations.

Recall

The chairman of the VRU Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, People's Deputy Danylo Hetmantsev, is behind the idea of revealing the tax banking secret. Dmytro Oleksiyenko , a member of the board of ICC Ukraine, a member of the Board of the Association of Taxpayers of Ukraine, said in a comment to UNN that this is Hetmantsev's dream.

Oleksiyenko also added that Hetmantsev has been systematically destroying the mechanism of banking secrecy in Ukraine since 2019. For this purpose, he has included the idea of opening the tax authorities' access to Ukrainians' card accounts in the National Revenue Strategy.

Oleksiyenko emphasized that banking secrecy currently protects citizens' money on card accounts from the tax authorities, and that disclosure of banking secrecy would allow taxing everyone and everything. 

Experts have repeatedly pointed out that Hetmantsev is a gray cardinal of the tax service and runs it in a manual mode through his people in the State Tax Service of Ukraine. In particular, according to media reports, through his former assistant Yevhen Sokur, who is currently acting as deputy head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine. Therefore, by his actions, including the disclosure of bank secrecy, Hetmantsev plays along with the tax authorities and tries to do everything to make them feel like "masters of life." 

Later, the National Bank of Ukraine proposed for public discussion amendments to the Rules for the Storage, Protection, Use and Disclosure of Bank Secrecy, approved by the NBU Board resolution of July 14, 2006.

According to the regulator, the changes are related to the need to bring the rules for storing, protecting, using and disclosing banking secrecy in line with the Law of Ukraine "On Banks and Banking Activities" and to improve the procedure for disclosing information constituting banking secrecy to the National Bank of Ukraine.