The Parliament of Ukraine has codified all tax legislation by adopting the Tax Code of Ukraine.

The Tax Code comes into force on 01 January 2011, except for certain sections that will become effective at a later date (for example, the section related to corporate profit tax will take effect on 01 April 2011).

With its adoption, a number of concepts common in other jurisdictions (for example: beneficial owner, true business goal and substance over form) have now become part of Ukrainian tax legislation.  In addition to codifying existing tax principles, the Tax Code introduces a new real estate tax, which has not been levied before in Ukraine.

Despite the intention to bring more clarity and consistency to tax legislation through codification, the new Tax Code appears to lack the intended clarity and tends to be more fiscally oriented than the tax laws that were effective before its adoption.  Existing court practice and tax authorities' clarifications are thus far inapplicable to the new Tax Code, adding some uncertainty to tax regulation for the near future.

In a number of following newsletters we will highlight certain particular new rules that may affect the business of international companies in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, for more details you are welcome to contact our tax team in our Kyiv office.

Law: Tax Code of Ukraine, No. 2755-VI, dated 02 December 2010.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

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The original publication date for this article was 15/12/2010.