Getmantsev spoke in favor of raising the military tax and VAT, but against the luxury tax.
Ukraine should raise not only the military tax, but also the VAT.
This was stated by the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, Danylo Getmantsev, during the event “Dialogues on NV about the Future. Business and War”.
“When the state comes to the people and says: we lack this much for the army, please, let each of us chip in for this holy goal, and we need it quickly, there are only two answers for this today – military tax and VAT,” the MP said.
In his opinion, only these two taxes are capable of quickly collecting money for the budget from all taxpayers equally.
Why the idea of increasing VAT has been abandoned for now
According to him, the first package of proposals submitted in mid-July mentioned a change in VAT. But it was no longer in the draft submitted to the session hall after lengthy consultations.
“There were arguments for, there were arguments against. There were sad eyes of the Ministry of Finance – I understand this look and the situation in which the Ministry of Finance found itself. But politically, at the team level, it was decided that we would leave this tax (the standard VAT rate of 20% – ed.),” the MP said.
In addition, there were also economic aspects.
“For example, the regressive nature of the value added tax on the one hand, and on the other hand, its direct impact on inflation. At the same time, the military tax does not affect inflation negatively, I would even say it has a positive impact. But if you asked me, given the needs of the budget now, in the real situation, and not in order to collect likes, it is necessary to raise both the military tax and VAT, without touching other taxes,” the deputy added.
Why did the luxury tax disappear
Getmantsev is convinced that introducing taxes on luxury is ineffective.
“When we begin to define an exhaustive list of luxury goods, we can never agree with anyone. Someone always feels offended, and someone is a winner,” the deputy said.
According to him, criticism was caused, in particular, by the proposed rates for certain goods.
“Why did jewelry have to pay 30%, for cars – 15%, and for apartments and bank gold – 5%. There was no argument. And really, there probably can't be one,” Getmantsev noted.
Another argument against these taxes was their supposedly small fiscal effect.
“We get a fairly large group of dissatisfied people and a fiscal effect of three to four billion from the introduction of any of these types of taxes,” the MP says.
Earlier, the NBU said whether the increase in taxes would affect prices in Ukraine.