Ukrainian refugees are required to declare in Ukraine any income received abroad

Ukrainian refugees must declare in Ukraine the income they earn abroad. The only time they do not need to do this is when taxes are paid in the country where they are staying abroad.

This was stated by Lesia Karnaukh, acting head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine.

“When filing a declaration, for example, they provide us with information that they were residents of that country at that time, that they paid taxes there in a certain amount—and that’s it. And if they have additional income that was not taxed, then under Ukrainian law only the part that was not taxed in another jurisdiction is subject to taxation,” Karnaukh said.

She also recalled the existence of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) system for exchanging financial account information, which was created so that tax authorities in two or three jurisdictions can share information with each other and ensure a fair approach to all taxpayers worldwide. According to the official, Ukraine is ready to exchange information with 121 countries under the CRS system. Moreover, Ukraine has the full right to refuse to provide information on its citizens’ income if it is confident that the request is being used for purposes other than those defined by the relevant convention—that is, not for tax collection.

As a reminder, in October of last year Ukraine carried out its first international automatic exchange of information under the CRS standard to increase transparency of financial transactions and combat tax evasion.