Nearly UAH 19 million in taxes has been returned to the budget following the exposure of a scheme involving the underpayment of taxes on land shares

 A livestock enterprise underreported its tax liabilities when paying rent to owners of land shares and concealed a portion of its business operations from official accounting records. Nearly UAH 19 million in unpaid taxes was returned to the state budget by detectives of the Territorial Office of the ESBU in the Volyn region.

According to the investigation, during 2022–2024, the local enterprise failed to reflect a portion of its product sales operations in its accounting and tax records. Tax invoices were not registered, and sales information was omitted from reporting documents.

Violations were also uncovered during settlements with the owners of land shares. The enterprise underreported the tax base when paying rent, as a result of which it failed to fully pay personal income tax and military tax.

The total amount of damages caused to the state due to tax evasion amounted to nearly UAH 19 million.

The scheme was detected by ESBU analysts during information and analytical work in the agricultural sector. They established risks of tax legislation violations and prepared a corresponding analytical product.

The ESBU forwarded the collected materials to the Main Directorate of the State Tax Service in the Volyn region for consideration during a scheduled documentary audit, as well as to detectives to initiate a pre-trial investigation. The tax authority's audit confirmed the violations identified by the analysts.

During searches conducted with the involvement of a relevant specialist, detectives established a discrepancy between the enterprise's actual volume of operations and the data in its accounting and tax records.

They also seized financial and economic documentation, electronic storage media, and “shadow accounting” records confirming the concealment of business operations from official tracking.

During the pre-trial investigation, the enterprise fully reimbursed the damages caused to the state and paid the financial penalties.

The chief accountant of the agricultural enterprise was served a notice of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (willful tax evasion on an especially large scale).

The materials of the criminal proceedings have been forwarded to court with a petition to release the suspect from criminal liability on the basis of Part 4 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, due to the full reimbursement of the damages caused to the state.

The pre-trial investigation was carried out by detectives of the Territorial Office of the ESBU in the Volyn region in cooperation with the staff of the Main Directorate of the State Tax Service in the Volyn region. The prosecution was supervised by the prosecutors of the Volyn Regional Prosecutor's Office.