The “black bead” scheme or What’s wrong with the taxation of international shipments “in a new way”

While in Spain, I ordered a new keyboard for my gadget in the USA. On the order site itself, I was offered 2 options: pay customs payments (including European VAT) at the time of placing the order, or pay these same payments at the post office at the time of receiving the parcel. Simple and clear. So I received it - quickly and without any problems. What do we have?

A few years earlier, while in Ukraine, I also trial paid for and sent from America a small parcel with special sports underwear for training. On the sports underwear website there was an opportunity to send a parcel directly to Ukraine

The parcel arrived with a paid price of $78, along with the cost of delivery. At our customs, the documents were first sent “for tariffs.” A month later, the tariff department of the Odessa customs decided in writing that the linen costs not $78, but $160. And I need to fill out a declaration, pay customs the fees are already 160 dollars and only then will they give me the parcel

For a month I weakly resisted, proving the illegality of “raising the price”, since there is an order website and the order itself in electronic and paper form. For another month, the question of what to do with this parcel was decided, given my resistance. After two months of staying in Ukraine at the postal warehouse, my parcel was sent back to America at the expense of the postal operator Customs washed their hands of it

Our government is now trying to implement something similar to the last example throughout Ukraine. Experts have already paid attention to the real attempts of the government to do. Namely: our government, which is absolutely stupid in customs matters, is trying to officially justify the “receipt” of 3.3 billion UAH. additionally to the budget, changing the procedure established just 2 years ago for receiving and processing small parcels from abroad

“Tax on parcels from abroad: how much will the budget receive and why will it hit the drone industry”... It will not only hit the drone industry It will hit the entire country Hundreds of thousands of parcels will simultaneously be stopped at customs clearance, as I described in the personal example above Naturally that only those parcels that are officially flying to Ukraine will be stopped. Everything that travels as “black imports” across the western borders according to the “empty beads” scheme will only increase the turnover

I’ll try to simulate the situation with receiving the next package by mail after this innovation for 3.3 billion UAH. budget

If I want to receive a parcel with a customs value according to documents of 50 € or more, then the post office will send me to a customs broker. For the services of a customs broker, I will have to pay at least $50 (minimum fee) And, of course, pay customs duties for the parcel. This is still approximately 20-25 euros

Consequently, the price of my parcel, in addition to its cost itself, will increase by another 70-75 € And this is if I am lucky enough not to go specifically to the broker, bringing him the original documents, but to transfer the documents to him electronically And that’s not all

According to the current rules, customs will automatically “find in the declaration” a violation that only it understands (inconsistency of the product code, low customs declared price, risks that cannot be disputed, etc.) And then, naturally, the customs inspector will want to meet in person: either with a broker, or with me “to discuss the problem” How much the cost of this operation will increase in this case depends only on how urgently I need this parcel 100-200 € at the discretion of the inspector, and several days of travel to him is the minimum price

Let me remind you that under this new scheme tens of thousands of parcels will begin to be processed per day, day and night. After the first registration under this scheme, any normal citizen and importer will begin to look for a way to deliver parcels according to the “black scheme” of “empty beads”

By the way, the idea of ​​deliberately wrapping all legal mail in a “black circuit of empty beads” to obtain additional flows of the same “dirty cache” may well be sufficient incentive for those who appease this parliamentary innovation. And no matter who is holding it out now: the Minister of Finance S. Marchenko or tax idiot deputy D. Getmantsev, or a number of closely related people’s deputies. Why they will do this - I described in the previous material

I’ll immediately refute some of my opponents’ arguments

Video cameras at customs - they exist, but it is impossible to install more cameras at customs posts due to limited technical capabilities and military restrictions In addition, you need to clearly understand who will constantly monitor the image Artificial intelligence that recognizes euros and dollars Money will then be transferred outside the customs post Another example: the case against a Lviv inspector, who two years ago took money right at his workplace, and this was recorded by a video surveillance camera, did not end in any way. To prove a crime, testimony and a statement are needed, in particular, from the driver who provided funds to the customs officer The driver was not recorded by the camera. Therefore, the inspector said that he did not take anything (“the picture” with the money he put in his pocket was blurry) And therefore he received a reprimand and continues to work at customs Another case when an official was fired a person who distributed the funds received together with colleagues (this was recorded by a video surveillance camera), but this person was not prosecuted. Later, this person was renewed in his position - by court decision

Photo recording - there is an order from the Chairman of the State Customs Service: all cargo vehicles should be photographed. But skilled customs officers prepare photographs of empty bus trucks in advance. The “empty bus trucks” scheme involves the same bus trucks, their photos in an empty state have long been prepared and “pumped in” » into the state system For example, only at Lviv customs there are about 700 customs inspectors working at seven checkpoints. These are thousands of photos daily for analysis for substitution. In Odessa, 10 years ago, I personally drew attention to a photograph of a container in the customs system, on the roof of which there was snow And snow before this, there had been no such thing in Odessa for several years. Meanwhile, arguments for photo and video recording of the customs process are still being pushed into the public, masking real customs criminal schemes. Just like “customs seals”, GPS tracking and other nonsense

Parliament has two options to change the current disgrace of Ukraine in state customs. Firstly, start the usual boring procedure with 1000 amendments, cash suitcases for the necessary changes, etc. And most importantly, extend the process itself for several more years Preserving the “black cache” system itself before and after the reform Only slightly change it in legislation

The second option is to outsource all customs work as soon as possible, that is, to foreigners

There is another intermediate option. This is without complex parliamentary procedures; it is necessary, by decision of the Ukrainian government, to transfer the payment of VAT on imports from the border into the interior of the country. Thus, the customs at the border will only have functions inherent in the customs itself

VAT has never been and will not be a customs payment in its classical sense. It was made such only during the time of Yanukovych. And this opened Pandora’s box. By removing VAT from the border, the amount of “tax savings” will sharply decrease if you engage in “gray imports”, and will make any fraud unnecessary with documents at the borders

From 60 to 100% of the payment of funds will disappear from the border, and corruption associated with customs VAT fraud will disappear “as a class” If we ensure synchronization of customs databases with the databases of the tax inspectorate for cargo and goods that are taken into account in the accounting records of enterprises after customs clearance , it is possible to ideally ensure the impossibility of substituting the names of goods or cargo at the border

With the information revolution that has taken place in the world, state tax and customs services will only have to monitor deviations that arise from attempts at fraud in customs documents and accounting. More precisely, again, it will not be customs or tax inspectors who will monitor, but database markers that they will quickly determine that “toothbrushes” have passed customs clearance, and according to the accounting records of the boutique, women’s handbags are being sold. And the important issue of this discrepancy will not be resolved by a specific customs inspector for $100 or $500, but this will be free of charge in the synchronization of customs and tax accounting data. Simply fast and elegant

And how many criminal cases will leave the border, which are “inflated” in amounts by the pseudo-customs payment of VAT, how many investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation, the SBU and others will finally take up the work that the country needs, it is even impossible to imagine now. Only in Lviv customs today there are criminal cases and suspicions announced to customs officers – more than 40 Some cases, considered in courts since 2015-2016, are for 2020... And in almost 100% of cases, it is VAT that “inflates the amounts” for the endless process of presenting suspicions, litigation and corruption already in this separate cycle "black cache"

What will Parliament and Government choose? Shame without end or end without shame “Cash schemes” of black cash flowing daily from customs posts in Kyiv, or changes

It's hard to say now, we can only watch

PS The “black bus” scheme is a very common scheme in Ukraine. Customs clearance is carried out using “empty bus” documents (usually minibuses measuring 1-3 tons), but in fact a full truck is transported across the border. The cost of such a service is now 800-3000 euros for the operation For this money, the customs inspector will put into the database photographs of an empty car, seals on the cargo compartment and give part of the money to those who check it at the border, keep part for himself, and part for the management of the customs post