Millions in transport, pennies in tax returns: ESBU liquidated a tax evasion scheme

 A company providing international transportation services has repaid nearly UAH 10 million in unpaid taxes to the state budget.

Detectives from the Territorial Office of ESBU in the Odesa region established that an entrepreneur who provided international passenger transport between Odesa and cities in Romania received over UAH 71 million in business revenue between 2022 and 2024. To provide these services, he used his own fleet of buses and held the appropriate license for international passenger transport

According to the investigation, the suspect transported over 55,000 passengers but failed to report a significant share of the received income in his tax filings.

Specifically, while using the simplified tax system, he declared only UAH 10.4 million in income instead of the actual UAH 28 million received. This led to the non-payment of over UAH 354,000 in unified tax.

After the 2% preferential tax rate was canceled, the entrepreneur continued to hide his real income. For instance, for August–September 2023, he declared only UAH 1.8 million despite an actual income of nearly UAH 9.8 million. As a result, the budget missed out on almost UAH 593,000 in taxes.

Furthermore, after exceeding the income limit allowed under the simplified tax system, the entrepreneur was required to switch to the general tax system and pay taxes in full. However, according to the investigation, he failed to declare over UAH 45 million in income earned from international transport throughout the year. This resulted in the non-payment of nearly UAH 8.9 million in personal income tax and military tax.

The total amount of damages caused to the state budget amounted to nearly UAH 10 million.

During the pre-trial investigation, the entrepreneur admitted his guilt and fully repaid the damages caused to the state. Over UAH 10 million in unpaid taxes and penalties was paid to the budget.

In connection with the full recovery of damages caused to the state, the prosecutor petitioned the court to release the individual from criminal liability in accordance with the requirements of Part 4 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Procedural guidance was carried out by prosecutors of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office.

Please note 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 verdict of conviction.