The Ukrainian budget may lose millions of hryvnia in taxes due to individual manipulations of businessmen
Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Rostislav Shurma may be involved in an unpleasant scandal related to the payment of taxes. More precisely, with optimization of their payment. Moreover, in a recent interview, it was he who reproached many Ukrainian entrepreneurs for working on the “borderline of the legal field.”
ZN.UA journalists talk in more detail about the “tricks” involving partial deception of the rules of tax legislation in the latest investigation, “Shurma’s Venture Matryoshka for Billions.”
First of all, you should understand that the Shurma family is a family contract of businessmen. Rostislav's brother Oleg Shurma owns two companies - KD Energy 2 LLC and Restorative Energy Zaporozhye LLC. At the same time, both already came to the attention of journalists - from Bigus.Info, who became interested in the so-called “solar” money.
The founder of “KD Energy 2” is the Cypriot company KD 2 Energy holding limited, which is owned by Oleg Shurma (50%) and the offshore companies Adelis Inc (Seychelles) and Dolpinta Holding limited (Cyprus). Restorative Energy of Zaporozhye has a different owner - Ecopower Invest LLC, which is 76% owned by ZNIKIF Helios (venture fund), and 23% by Zambelica Limited from Cyprus.
The mentioned “Helios” is one of the most important assets for businessmen of the Shurma family - with an authorized capital of 435 million UAH. By the way, this fund was headed by Rostislav Shurma in 2019-2021. However, after his appointment to the OP, the position of director was taken by the wife of his brother Oleg, Ksenia Shurma.
Let’s keep an eye on our hands, because “Helios” is not the final point. The founders of the fund include Sonier Invest LLC with an authorized capital of UAH 150 thousand. The beneficiaries are Svetlana Stoyan (book supplier in the Donetsk region) and Olga Kuzina (individual entrepreneur from Zaporozhye, which should operate cafes and mobile canteens - according to the specified economic activity code). However, the most interesting thing here is the LLC with its own authorized capital, which could hardly be financed by a venture fund with a budget of millions. It is still unknown who lent these funds - everything is covered with commercial secrets.
What is the meaning of such “pyramids”? As colleagues from “Mirror of the Week” write, venture funds are very convenient for optimizing tax payments.
“Yes, according to the current Tax Code, all joint investment institutions (venture fund like Helios is one of them) are exempt from paying income tax and have half the tax rate on dividends. They can also lend funds to their own companies and thereby reduce the income tax of their subsidiaries. In general, transferring money, and therefore tax liability, to enterprises with preferential taxation is an optimization classic, but any tax specialist will confirm: this is a scheme on the brink, and often beyond it,” the authors of the investigation note.
Against the background of “Helios” and “Soniera Invest” this is quite clearly visible. In 2022 alone, a certain profitable company, Soniera, declared UAH 328 million before tax. At the same time, “in the financial statements for income tax, only zeros and dashes are indicated instead of tens of millions of hryvnia,” journalists note.
“Helios” also distinguished itself in tax evasion. Being a co-owner of 26 legal entities in Ukraine and two Hungarian ones, the fund received a lot of income to accumulate assets worth UAH 1.4 billion (at the end of 2022). Some of the money was invested in company property, but most of it was borrowed by him, and at interest. This simple scheme allowed the entire group of companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of hryvnia in income taxes.
“This can be evidenced by the financial statements of one of the 26 companies where Helios is a co-owner - Master Finance LLC, which provides financial services,” writes Zerkalo Nedeli. — For 2022, the company’s income amounted to UAH 85 million. But the income tax was only 181 thousand UAH, since financial expenses amounted to more than 74 million UAH. That is, “Master Finance” paid someone from whom it borrowed money 74 million UAH for servicing this loan. And if this loophole had not existed and the lender had not lent money to “Master of Finance”, but had contributed it to the authorized capital, then these 74 million would have become the profit of the company, and the tax of 18% of profit would have increased from a measly 181 thousand UAH to about 13 million.”
It should be noted that journalists found out that Helios is not the only venture fund owned by the Shurm family. Oleg has at least two more of them - “Prostor” and “Kvantum”, with an authorized capital of more than 100 million UAH.
“The amounts invested in the funds, as well as the excess profits, are difficult to explain both by Oleg’s business acumen and by the salary of Rostislav Shurma in the Akhmetov group (yes, we asked insiders), where he worked before working for Ermak. The amounts of taxes underpaid to the state, and even during the war, do not suit the statist from the office in a white coat, but both the first and second amounts can be explained by the influence of this respected statist. And now, as it were, in “Energoatom”, and in the “United Mining and Chemical Company”, and in the “Energy Company of Ukraine”, and in “Ukrnafta”, and in “Forests of Ukraine”, and in AvtoKrAZ, and in “Zaporozhtransformator”, and “Zaporozhyeoblenergo”, and “Nikolayevoblenergo”, and also in “Ukrainian distribution networks” and “GTS Operator of Ukraine,” investigative journalists summarize.
