Entrepreneurs get five times more RCO-related fines

For never issuing receipts nor using cash registers.

22 February 2021

Entrepreneurs get five times more RCO-related fines

In 2020, the STS (State Tax Service of Ukraine) exposed 16,434 cases of non-compliance with the RCO (registrar of calculated operations) use regulations on the part of entrepreneurs—twice as many as in 2019 (9,944).

However, the number of tax audits remained largely unchanged year-on-year: 16,565 were carried out last year, and 16,373 in 2019.

The number of non-compliance cases thus almost corresponded to the STS’s annual tax audit count. The figure started rising back in April: the number of non-compliance cases rose from 411 in March to 2,256 in December.

RCO non-compliance fines and STS tax audits in 2018–2020
MonthJanuary 2018FebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberJanuary 2019FebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberJanuary 2020FebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
Tax audits8989901,2371,2141,2971,2651,2791,6549701,5061,2101,1321,1701,3311,3401,2329411,4161,5101,3511,5191,2131,7401,6101,2581,1891,3087462689821,3501,6241,3301,9172,1522,441
RCO non-compliance fines4503363746907583003904609805446801,0106604804731,2414104505425501,1951,1981,3451,4001,2601,1894115806527171,2101,6841,8712,3502,2542,256

Among the most frequent violations are the non-use of cash registers and failure to issue checks to buyers. The government’s attempts to organize the tracking of individual entrepreneurs’ turnover so that the simplified taxation system legislation works as initially intended resulted in another politically-motivated delay in the nation-wide introduction of RCOs.

A new trend emerged in Ukraine in August 2020. Entrepreneurs were enabled to report their turnover to the STS online with cloud receipts instead of traditional paper ones and use a regular smartphone in place of a cash register. The solution was dubbed PRCO (program registrar of calculated operations).

PRCO transaction (Aug 2020–Jan 2021)
MonthAugust 2020SeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberJanuary 2021
PRCO transaction, million011.915.418.524.928.1

Cloud receipts are rising with every passing month, already accounting for 5% of the overall figure.

RCO transactions (Jan 2018–Jan 2021)
MonthJanuary 2018FebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberJanuary 2019FebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberJanuary 2020FebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberJanuary 2021
RCO transaction, million521464.3445.8492.8497.9528.4513.9522.6541.9517521.6497.5524.5471.6467.1528.1853.9546.2543.6556.2559.9535.9526.3523.4560.7513513.8497.1372.8432.8488.2529.5529.1513.8528.7490.9534.6

As of end-January, 55,600 entrepreneurs used tablets and smartphones to issue cloud receipts for their customers and STS. With this purpose in mind, the government released pRROsto, a cloud cash register, prompting the emergence of commercial cloud services for cash register-less issue of receipts.

«Compare Ukraine with other countries in terms of tax cloud operation, and you will see that we use the best approach: unlike most European countries, we have no buffer service providers, and our government provides basic free software. All you need to issue cloud receipts with Poster, for example, is to enter your government-issued keys», 

— said Mykyta Ulianov, Mobile & Hardware Team Lead at Poster, a café and restaurant automation provider.

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6,288 businesses

to be inspected by tax agencies in 2021

13 January 2021