Payment of unified social contribution by technical assistance projects needs streamlining in Ukraine

The number of international technical assistance projects in Ukraine has increased more than by half during 2024. The number of organisations that implement them has also increased dramatically with an increase in their staff in Ukraine.

Per the records about the projects published on the government’s website in December, more than half of the implementers are situated or hold dedicated units in Ukraine. Those include Ukrainian manufacturers, research and educational institutions, non-governmental organisations, state and municipal authorities, as well as foreign and international organisations that opened offices in the territory of Ukraine. Other foreign legal entities implement projects jointly with local legal entities, either controlled or independent, including through entering consortiums when that may be necessary per the task’s technical requirements, or they carry the activities out on their own.

The ability to operate directly is specific to this sort of activity. A foreign entity may operate as an implementer of an international technical assistance project in the territory of Ukraine immediately after the project’s registration and the implementer’s accreditation in the Secretariat of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. It includes opening bank accounts, staff employment, obtaining vehicle registration plates, etc. In other words, the fastest possible receipt of assistance in Ukraine is controlled and ensured at the governmental level by accreditation of a foreign entity directly to operate in Ukraine for project implementation without incorporation and registration of another legal entity or an office. For automation of that process, the government has adopted the Procedure for Maintenance of Register of Projects (Programs) of International Technical Assistance by Resolution dated 11 October 2024 No. 1163 which should further speed it up.

The implementer which is a foreign entity is unburdened with formalities imposed on local entities and dedicated offices, such as bookkeeping or tax reporting and disclosure of the ownership structure in Ukraine.  This is reasonable since the aid is not aimed at profit, the implementers are selected by the development partners, and the supply of goods and services is relieved from value-added tax under respective international agreements.

This does not exclude other formalities for certain activities. For instance, to notify the tax authorities about account opening, the bank requires the tax number of the implementer, which is subsequently used for identification in transactions and control over the application of tax exemptions. Thus, implementers that are foreign entities have to apply for tax registration due to the lack of information exchange between systems similar to the exchange existing for Ukrainian legal entities as well as, after the amendments in 2024, for offices of foreign entities.

The issue of performance of employer obligations becomes more pressing. In particular, the laws of Ukraine oblige the employer to pay the unified social contribution, individual income tax, and military contribution. However, the regulatory conditions provide implementers with no opportunity to pay the unified social contribution directly. The practice developed alternative solutions, each having substantial drawbacks in comparison to direct payment of the unified social contribution. We describe the particularities of such solutions in detail in the table.

In 2019, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine tried to solve this problem by adopting a new application form for registration of a unified social contribution payer, which included the implementers of international technical assistance as an option with a reference to paragraph 6 of clause 1 of part 1 of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On payment and accounting of unified contribution for compulsory state social insurance" No. 2464-VI dated 08 July 2010. However, the tax authorities strongly disagree with that approach and refuse to register the implementers as unified social contribution payers because the effective Article 4 of that law, which determines employers for the purposes of payment of the unified social contribution as well as other payers of the unified social contribution, does not mention the implementers of international technical assistance, in particular those which were incorporated under the laws of other states and has no registered offices in Ukraine.

An amendment of the mentioned article of the Law could become an appropriate solution, which could extend the list with a separate clause, such as: "implementers of international technical assistance projects in case of them employing insured individuals in the territory of Ukraine".

Because the respective payments are financed from the funds of international technical assistance as expenses anyway, that solution, from a practical perspective, would not impose on implementers which are foreign entities new obligations but would significantly simplify the implementation of international technical assistance projects in Ukraine, including the payment of unified social contribution and the reservation of employees from military service, as well as simplify the ensuring of the rights of the employees, in particular as insured individuals.