The mayor of Mykolaiv discussed the problem of the «military» personal income tax with the minister of finance

Mykolaiv City Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych met with the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhii Marchenko to discuss the issue of possible compensation to the city budget after the loss of personal income tax (PIT), which is paid to military personnel.

He told about this in the comment «NikVesti».

We will remind you that on October 20, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting in Mykolaiv on current issues of security and vital activities of the region. The meeting was attended by the mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych, the head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim and the heads of law enforcement agencies.

According to the results of the meeting with the president, Oleksandr Sienkevych also discussed this issue with the relevant minister.

— I discussed with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi the issue of the military personal income tax. Mykolaiv will not have enough funds for survival after we are left without military personal income tax. This issue was actively discussed, and after that I had a meeting with the Minister of Finance Serhii Marchenko last week, — informed the mayor of Mykolaiv.

Oleksandr Sienkevych noted that the city government is currently preparing a package of documents that will clearly demonstrate the difference in revenues and expenditures of the budget of Mykolaiv in 2024 compared to the previous year of 2021.

— We are continuing our work, we are preparing all comparative tables for income in 2021 compared to 2024, we will compare and explain income and expenses. Of course, the budget will be reduced, but I wanted the city of Mykolaiv to be considered not in the same way as other cities of Ukraine, but in a separate position, because our business is not working today, there are problems with paying the land tax, that is, it will be very difficult next year, — summed up the mayor.

As you know, as part of the preparation of the law «On the state budget for 2024», the Cabinet of Ministers plans to direct all revenues from the personal income tax of military personnel, 64% of which currently remain in local budgets, to the state budget. The Association of Cities of Ukraine believes that these funds will most likely be dissolved in the state budget, as well as 36% of the current personal income tax, which is administered by the Ministry of Finance. We are talking about 25.8 billion hryvnias this year and 93.7 billion hryvnias next year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal clarified the day before. The relevant government bill has already been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.

The budget of Mykolaiv will thus lose 2.7 billion hryvnias, the mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine can allocate over 517 million hryvnias to the communities of the Mykolaiv region to compensate for the loss of personal income tax from military income.

On October 6, it was reported that the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada reviewed the decision on the draft law on personal income tax from the military and made amendments: from October 1 to December 31, 2023, the «military» personal income tax is directed to the state budget in the proportion of 50% to 50%. One part of 13 billion hryvnias will go to the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine for drones, and the second part, also 13 billion hryvnias, will be directed to the Ministry of Defense for the purchase of artillery systems.

People's deputies also commented on the situation with the possible loss of the military personal income tax. In particular, People's Deputy from the Servant of the People party Artem Chornomorov criticized the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine over the decision to withdraw the personal income tax paid by the military from the budget of Mykolaiv.

During the session of the Mykolaiv City Council, he stated that he will not support the 2024 state budget unless it is amended to leave the personal income tax paid by military personnel in front-line communities.

On October 17, the Verkhovna Rada failed to vote in the second reading for a draft law that proposed to take away from local communities the income from personal income tax (PIT) paid by military personnel.