In March, Ukraine received the first tranche of 4.5 billion euros under the European Union Ukraine Facility program. In the future, it will be more difficult to receive money under this program, the total amount of which is 50 billion euros, since it will directly depend on the implementation of reforms.
In particular, to combat corruption and money laundering, our country will have to make information about citizens’ bank accounts and the movement of funds through them more accessible to regulatory authorities.
As part of the fight against corruption and money laundering, Ukraine undertakes to create and introduce a Unified Register of Bank Accounts of Legal Entities and Individuals. The launch of the registry, according to the Ukraine Facility program, is planned for 2027.
In particular, the “National Revenue Strategy” provides for providing tax authorities with access to citizens’ banking information, including information about the movement of funds in their accounts. True, this should be preceded by “restoring taxpayers’ trust in the tax authorities,” as well as depersonalization of data on taxpayers - that is, instead of names and surnames in the registers there will be only numbers, which, at least theoretically, will eliminate the possibility of corruption on the part of fiscal officials.
Question of trust
On the one hand, these measures are presented as European standards that Ukraine must implement as a candidate for EU membership. But on the other hand, today's realities make us think about whether these measures will become a convenient tool for putting pressure on citizens and businesses.
According to tax expert Alexandra Tomashevskaya, most likely, such a register will be something like registers of movable and immovable property.
“Of course, it will not be public, the point is that it will exist. And, relatively speaking, if a man does not pay alimony, then if there is a collection from the executive service, the notary will be able to access the list of accounts in order to be guaranteed to collect the required amount from him,” she explained.
Every time an account is opened with a bank (or non-bank institution), the relevant information will be sent to the tax authorities.
“It still goes out now, but only to entrepreneurs. And until information about this account appears in the tax office, the account is not launched,” says Tomashevskaya. — There is no such requirement for ordinary individuals now. But it will happen, and it will just be information. The account number, its name and where it is opened - it ends up in the register, but this does not mean that the movement of funds becomes visible to anyone.”
At the same time, tax authorities’ access to accounts is discussed in the above-mentioned National Revenue Strategy.
“They want to first eliminate corruption risks, because tax officials, if they look at the volume of movements of funds in accounts, can abuse this information. I’m not even talking about the fact that they openly sell it,” emphasized Alexandra Tomashevskaya.
Thus, Ukrainian society is not yet ready for the financial transparency discussed in the Ukraine Facility plan.
“First of all, due to the low level of trust in regulatory authorities, citizens and businesses are afraid of abuse of such sensitive information,” Maxim Oryshchak, an analyst at the Center for Exchange Technologies (CBT) company, tells Apostrophe.
If we consider various scenarios for the introduction of a unified register of accounts and access to them by tax authorities, then, according to the expert, the most favorable of them will be about increasing efficiency.
“The authorities will be able to better manage the economy based on this information. This also applies to adjustments to the tax system - a progressive scale (of taxation) for individuals and businesses will become possible. More precise government programs to support citizens and businesses will also become available,” the analyst noted.
In the worst case scenario, the register will be used only to put pressure, primarily on business. Because in conditions of high corruption, possession of the information it contains will open up wide opportunities for raiding.
“However, the reality will most likely be somewhere in the middle,” Oryshchak sums up.
Tell me your secrets
By the way, in the European Union, whose standards we seem to want to implement in our country, tax authorities do not have access to citizens’ accounts.
“In Europe, on the contrary, data is very protected. There, the citizen declares his income and submits the corresponding declaration to the bank, says Alexandra Tomashevskaya. “That is, the information moves in the opposite direction - you cannot operate an account unless data is provided that these incomes are legal.”
So what, in this case, will happen to banking secrecy in our country? Will it be protected to a certain extent, or will we have no escape from full financial transparency?
“Ukrainian banks are already friends of the tax authorities,” says Alexandra Tomashevskaya. “But the banking system is still trying to earn money, and if they start knocking hard, as they say, then they will simply lose customers. Banks are well aware that a large number of clients do not pay taxes and do not declare income. And therefore they are trying to “lobble” between responsibility to the state and the desire to earn something in this falling market.”
Thus, if the authorities seek full access to citizens' accounts, people will withdraw all the money from them. To understand, the emergence of information that the mobilization bill contains a clause about the possible blocking of bank accounts of draft dodgers led to the fact that huge sums were withdrawn from bank accounts. Obviously, in the event of a threat to banking secrecy for all Ukrainians, the withdrawal of money will be more widespread. And if there are no funds in the accounts and the accounts themselves, the banking system will suffer greatly.
That is why, Tomashevskaya believes, there will be no total surveillance of bank accounts and movements on them.
“People think that everyone will sit down to monitor their every transaction - and pay from this, and pay from that. I don’t think this will happen, although, of course, the tax office dreams of this,” the expert believes.
However, according to Maxim Oryshchak, after creating a register of bank accounts and providing tax authorities with access to them, data protected by bank secrecy will become much more open.
“And if the level of corruption remains high, there may be no “secrets” left,” the analyst concluded.
