Traditionally Ukrainian policy-makers and experts have paid attention predominantly to the Government direct external debt. And today this debt has been kept within acceptable limits and does not pose any danger.
The policy papers are the joint product of the German Advisory Group for Economic Reforms in Ukraine and the IER aimed at providing economic policy recommendations to Ukraine’s policy makers. The recommendations are based on the careful analysis of Ukraine’s situation, state-of-the-art economic theory, and best international practices. The papers are available for policy makers and – with some time lag – for general public.
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Traditionally Ukrainian policy-makers and experts have paid attention predominantly to the Government direct external debt. And today this debt has been kept within acceptable limits and does not pose any danger.
VAT administration in Ukraine has been traditionally criticized for its inefficiency.The problems related to VAT varies from low tax compliance to problems with tax refunds generated inter alia by outright fraud and corruption.
Recently, Ukraine’s President signed an agreement on the formation of a Single Economic Space (SES) between Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. This agreement foresees implementation of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and eventually transformation towards a Customs Union (CU). We first discuss the corresponding legal aspects and stress the contradiction with Ukraine’s standstill commitment in the ongoing negotiations on World Trade Organization (WTO) accession.
Simplified taxation was implemented in 1998, and was not reformed afterwards. The common feature of "simplified" taxes is that they are substitutes for several types of taxes, as well as social insurance contributions. However, current system of social insurance, developed in 1998-2001, does not take into account the specifics introduced by simplified taxation schemes.
The existence of fairly large state sector in Ukraine determines the necessity finding the most efficient ways of managing state property in general and financial relations between the state and state-owned enterprises.
In Ukraine is a consensus growing about the necessity to join the WTO. Now discussions are focused on the analysis of costs and benefits for specific sectors and some other related problems. But the important issue of national policy-making in the post-accession period was not even mentioned yet.