A village without business, but with taxes: In Lviv Oblast, in one of the OTG, taxes on private property have been raised almost 100 times! – this is the name of the video plot on the Inter channel
Now for an example, you will have to pay 60,000 for a cowshed. Twice as much for dilapidated farm warehouses. The owners of the premises are already looking for money to pay taxes and equipment to tear down the premises from which they do not generate income.
What explains such a sharp increase in taxation? Khrystyna Hashenko found out.
Half-ruined buildings in the village of Piddubne, near the Ukrainian-Polish border, were bought by Mr. Volodymyr 2 years ago. At that time, the man paid a little more than 10,000 hryvnias in tax for the ownership of two premises with a size of more than one and a half thousand square meters.
Volodymyr Pavliv, entrepreneur:
We plastered the walls because they were all moldy, because it was raining, everything was in holes here. We repaired and covered all the slate to save this room at least a little. But here it is necessary to completely restore and cover with metal tiles.
After the repair, Volodymyr planned to open a car repair shop here. But because of the great war, there were no workers left in the village. Therefore, no one can start working and finish it. A tax bill of over one hundred thousand hryvnias put an end to the unstarted business.
Volodymyr Pavliv, entrepreneur:
When they bought it, they valued this room at 90,000, based on how it looked, and the tax that came in 2022, when the war began, was 127,000. Somehow it is not right, it is not correct to tax in this way.
More than 60 thousand hryvnias must be paid for the ownership of this stable. The owner of the building is Oleg’s 94-year-old grandmother. The man assures that he stored grain from the field indoors. I did not use it for business.
Oleg, a resident of Belzka OTG:
It will not even be profitable to sell it, because no one will buy it here. There is no perspective at all, whether to disassemble it, destroy it and put it as it was. I don’t know how to do it myself.
Volodymyr Pavliv, entrepreneur:
If they made a smaller tax, like 0.1 or 0.2, then I would have nothing against it, but 1 percent does not correspond to that reality. Why pay 1 percent, for a ruin, in which you still need to invest a lot of money?
Property taxes in the community increased because local deputies raised them almost a hundredfold.
Roman Kulyk, deputy of Belz OTG:
The situation is a bit complicated because there is an overlay, we felt the same way, but for today we bought a grader for the community. You see, the community is developing, we have no other income in the community.
Local entrepreneurs argue that high taxes during wartime slow down business, not the other way around. Residents of OTG express their indignation after the session in the city council.
Yuriy, a resident of the city of Belz:
Not a single entrepreneur will come, will not create any jobs in those premises, will not buy from these current owners, because of such a tax burden. They will buy in the neighboring community, because there are fewer surprises, aren’t you ashamed? Tell me?
Oksana Bereza, Mayor of Belza:
Am I not ashamed that 0 with something, but 1? If Belz paid 1 and villages paid 0 or something and we leveled at 1, I don’t think it’s a shame. I think it was a shame when they didn’t pay at all for decades.
The deputy’s decision has been approved, the invoices from the tax office have been sent, so the owners of the premises must pay for everything or go to court, lawyers explain.
Khrystyna Dyakun, lawyer:
The object is under the right of private ownership, and the tax rates and benefits for this tax are established by the decision. If a natural or legal entity does not have benefits for paying taxes, it must pay these taxes. If she believes that she has benefits or should have benefits under the tax code, then she can appeal and appeal the relevant tax ruling.
The deputies left the property tax at 1 percent for next year as well. Also, the owners of the premises say that they will go to court, because they are not ready to pay a lot of money for the simple premises.