The head of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, Marchenko, is introducing a car tax after his wife switched to a Mini Cooper worth nearly 30 thousand euros – declaration

Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko explained the necessity of raising taxes on new cars by stating that automobiles are not essential items during wartime. Meanwhile, he owns a 2017 Audi A6 worth 1.5 million hryvnias (€33,800), and his wife started using a Mini Cooper SE in 2023, valued at 1.3-1.7 million hryvnias (€29,276), although she previously did not have her own car.

In an interview, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko stated that buying a new car during the war is not critically necessary for Ukrainians. This is how he explains the government’s plans to impose a 15% military tax on the cost of new cars. At the same time, in addition to the family’s existing Audi A6 worth 1.5 million hryvnias, Minister Marchenko’s wife started using a Mini Cooper SE in 2023, which costs up to 1.7 million hryvnias.

Minister Marchenko argues that “our house is on fire, and you say we shouldn’t buy firefighting equipment, but rather buy a car.” He does not believe that buying new cars during the war is a “critical necessity” for Ukrainians. Thus, the official justifies the government’s plans to introduce a 15% military tax on car purchases.

At the same time, journalists found an interesting fact in the minister’s declaration. Since the beginning of 2023, the minister’s wife has been driving a Mini Cooper SE electric car, which in a new configuration can cost up to $41,500 (1,706,000 hryvnias). But she did not buy this car; she uses it for free. Considering that the car was manufactured in 2021, it could now cost 20-30% less on the used car market: from 1,193,500 to 1,364,000 hryvnias.

The car’s owner is Yuliya Yefimenko, who gave the minister’s wife 272,000 hryvnias in 2022. It can be assumed that the car’s owner is the mother of the minister’s wife. If the minister’s wife decided to buy this car, she would have to pay a certain amount to the budget. In 2019, the minister purchased an Audi A6 on lease for almost 1.5 million hryvnias. Since then, the family had one car, and now they have two. It is unknown whether the minister also uses any official cars.

Draft law No. 11416 proposes to impose a 15% military tax on the cost of new and used cars registered for the first time. Thus, any car imported from abroad will incur a 15% tax (except for cars for people with disabilities). As part of the government’s initiative to increase taxes, an additional 120 billion hryvnias should be raised in the budget this year.

Apparently, fearing the tax increase on cars, a significant number of Ukrainians decided to upgrade their car fleets during the war. In 2023, about 61,000 new passenger cars were sold in Ukraine, totaling more than 105.5 billion hryvnias. This is 1.6 times more than in 2022 (37,900).

Ukrainians spent the most on Toyota cars – 16.4 billion hryvnias. The most popular model was the Toyota RAV-4 (2,934 cars of this model sold in a year). The second place was taken by BMW – 13.7 billion hryvnias. The leading model was the BMW X5 (986 units). Mercedes-Benz accounted for 10.9 billion hryvnias, with the bestseller being the Mercedes-Benz GLE (1,061 units). Fourth place went to Volkswagen – 8.9 billion hryvnias, with the VW ID.4 being the most popular model (2,655 units). Additionally, Ukrainians bought Skoda cars worth 4.7 billion hryvnias in 2023, with the most popular model being the Kodiaq (1,307 units).