Fictitious expenses of 32 million UAH: ESBU ensures recovery of almost 6.7 million UAH to the budget

 The director of an enterprise specializing in the wholesale trade of timber, construction materials, and sanitary equipment has repaid over 6.6 million UAH in unpaid taxes to the state budget.

Detectives of the Territorial Office of the ESBU in the Odesa region established that the suspect intentionally evaded paying corporate income tax. The man entered inaccurate information into the financial and tax reporting.

The individual artificially increased the company's expenses by over 32 million UAH. To do this, he overstated the cost of products sold and included expenses in the reporting without proper documentation that did not actually occur.

Because of this, the enterprise showed a significantly lower profit on paper than it actually received. Since the tax is calculated from profit, its amount was artificially reduced.

Subsequently, this false data was entered into the tax return, as a result of which, for 2025 alone, over 5.8 million UAH in corporate income tax did not enter the budget.

The director used a similar scheme when preparing the reporting for the first quarter of 2026. In total, according to the investigation, the enterprise evaded paying corporate income tax by almost 6.7 million UAH.

During the pre-trial investigation, a forensic economic examination confirmed the fact of understatement of tax liabilities. Prior to being notified of suspicion, the company director fully compensated for the damage caused to the state by paying almost 6.7 million UAH in tax, as well as nearly 200 thousand UAH in penalties.

In connection with the full compensation of the damage caused, the prosecutor appealed to the court with a motion to release the person from criminal liability on the basis of part 4 of article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Prosecutorial guidance was provided by prosecutors of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office.

It should be noted that according to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in accordance with the law and established by a court's guilty verdict.