The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a draft law developed by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, which, in particular, will oblige payers of environmental tax and rent for special water use to calculate their tax liabilities based on data from integrated environmental permits.
The government's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Melnychuk, announced this on Telegram.
The draft law is titled: “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine in connection with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine 'On Integrated Prevention and Control of Industrial Pollution'” and harmonizes the provisions of the Tax Code (TCU) and the Law of Ukraine No. 3855-IX ‘On Integrated Prevention and Control of Industrial Pollution’.
Why it became necessary to amend the Tax Code
In the explanatory note to this draft law, the Ministry of Finance justifies the need for a new document with the following points
- with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine No. 3855-IX “On Integrated Prevention and Control of Industrial Pollution”, which comes into force on 08.08.2025, it is planned to replace the current permits (for emissions, water use and waste management) with integrated environmental permits;
- the old permits will be valid for a maximum of 4 years after the entry into force of the law or until the integrated permit is obtained, but during the transition period, operators can still obtain traditional permits until they obtain an integrated environmental permit;
- after the companies receive integrated environmental permits and the old-style permits become invalid, the Tax Code should be updated to ensure proper administration of environmental tax, subsoil and water rents so that tax authorities have access to data from the new integrated permits.
What changes are proposed to be made
According to the comparative table to this draft law, the Ministry of Finance wants to amend three articles of the Tax Code – No. 250 “Procedure for submitting tax reports and paying tax”, No. 252 “Rent for the use of subsoil for the extraction of mineral resources” and No. 258 “Rent for special use of water”.
The amendments to the Tax Code provide for the following obligations:
- for payers of environmental tax and rent for special water use – to calculate their tax liabilities based on data from integrated environmental permits;
- for the authorities issuing integrated environmental permits – to provide the tax authorities with a list of business entities that have been issued such permits.
On March 27, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine published a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On Approval of Requirements for the Form and Content of an Integrated Environmental Permit”. This resolution will be one of the main bylaws to the Law of Ukraine No. 3855-IX “On Integrated Prevention and Control of Industrial Pollution”.