Among other things, Law No. 323-IX provides for amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the definition of concepts: an accountable account and its owners, a financial agent and a financial account; features of reporting on accountable accounts; collection and receipt of tax information by regulatory authorities from financial agents; imposing a fine for failure to submit, reporting in violation or with inaccurate information or errors in reports on accountable accounts (this rule is aimed primarily at encouraging financial agents to comply with the law on the obligation to report on accountable accounts).
It is worth noting that the concept of “accountable account” is defined as a financial account that meets one of the following criteria:
- the account holder is a non-resident individual;
- the account holder is a legal entity - non-resident or representative office of a non-resident - legal entity; and
- The account holder is a legal entity that is not a financial agent and whose ultimate beneficial owner (controller) is a non-resident individual.
At the same time, the provisions of Law No. 323-IX stipulate that if an international agreement containing provisions on the exchange of information, the consent of which is provided by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, or an interdepartmental agreement concluded on its basis, establishes other rules than those provided for by this law, the rules apply international treaty. The list of such international treaties is published on the official website of the central executive body that implements state tax policy.
In turn, Law No. 322-IX provides for amendments to:
- The Law of Ukraine "On Banks and Banking" regarding the procedure for disclosing bank secrets; and
- Law of Ukraine "On the depository system of Ukraine" in terms of access to information contained in the depository accounting system.
Such innovations are a logical continuation of the global trend of deoffshorization, which has recently been gaining momentum.