In 2024, the State Tax Service of Ukraine conducted 16,119 desk inspections of individual entrepreneurs (IEOs) working with excisable goods and assessed fines in the amount of UAH 9.5 million. This indicates an increase in inspections compared to previous years.
As reported by Opendatabot, as a result of actual inspections, another 8,983 fines were imposed, which is a record figure for the last five years. Overall, the number of decisions to impose fines has increased, which indicates increased control over the circulation of excisable goods and compliance with labor legislation among entrepreneurs.
At the same time, the average fine in 2024 decreased by almost 2.5 times compared to 2021, reaching the level of 14,700 hryvnias. This indicates that although inspections have become more regular, state authorities have become more cautious in imposing sanctions.
For comparison, in 2020-2021, an average of about 5,800 decisions were made per year, and the total amount of fines reached 210 million hryvnias. Last year, the number of decisions remained stable, but the amount of fines decreased by 1.5 times.
Desk audits conducted by the tax service are based on data provided in tax returns and are aimed at identifying reporting errors, overstatements or understatements of taxes. This approach allows specialists to detect violations at the stage of submitting documents, without physically inspecting the entrepreneur.
It is worth noting that the largest number of desk inspections over the past five years was conducted in 2020 - 33,882 inspections. However, in 2021, their number almost halved, but the amount of fines increased by 1.6 times, reaching UAH 14.57 million.
In general, in 2023, the tax service recorded the largest amount of agreed fines based on the results of desk inspections, which amounted to UAH 21.96 million - 1.5 times more than in 2021.
