Blocking of tax invoices in a new way: how will it be?

In order to fulfil the requirements of the Law of Ukraine No. 2245-VII “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine and certain legislative Acts of Ukraine to ensure the balance of budget revenues in 2018” of 7.12.2017, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the Resolution No. 117 of 21.02.2018 which approved:

1. the procedure for suspending the registration of the tax invoice / calculation adjustments in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices;
2. the operating procedure of commissions that take decisions on the registration of a tax invoice / calculation adjustments in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices or refusal of such registration;
3. the procedure for considering complaints against decisions of commissions that take decisions on registration of a tax invoice / calculation adjustments in the Unified Register of Tax Invoices or refusal of such registration.

What has been fundamentally changed? The first thing I want to note is that previously, only the business transaction that was reflected in the tax invoice was subject to monitoring. And now the monitoring of the tax invoice / calculation adjustment (hereinafter – the tax invoice) is carried out according to the following criteria:

1. risk criteria of the taxpayer;
2. risk criteria for operations;
3. indicators of the taxpayer’s positive tax history.

In other words, the monitoring of the tax invoice will be carried out, in fact, through the prism of the riskiness of the taxpayer himself and his positive/negative tax history. The definition of these criteria and indicators is entrusted to the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, which should coordinate them with the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, and then post it on its official website. In addition, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine should inform the the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Tax and Customs Policy on the definition of the criteria. However, the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine does not specify when the SFS should report to the Committee on the definition of criteria, before or after their coordination with the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. As before, before the monitoring, tax invoices will be checked for certain signs that have remained almost unchanged. And if the tax invoices correspond to these features, then their monitoring does not occur and the registration is made automatically. One of the very interesting innovation is that the registration of tax invoices that meet the criteria for the riskiness of operations does not stop if the taxpayer has a positive tax history. It should be noted that the taxpayer’s positive tax history is not static (that is, defined once and for all). The indicators of a positive tax history are calculated by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine on a monthly basis until the 10th day and are available to the taxpayer in the electronic cabinet. In addition, tax invoices, the registration of which is suspended, can be seen in the open Register on the official site of the SFS. This register will be published daily. It should be noted that the Register will operate in a test mode within a month from the date of entry into force of this order. Thus, from 22.03.2018 the taxpayers will face again such an unpleasant situation as “blocking” of tax invoices, which they faced previously in 2017. In the future articles, the specialists of Finance Business Service will detail the issues of a new procedure for suspending the registration of tax invoices and a new procedure for appealing against the decisions of the commissions on the refusal to register tax invoices.