Charity endangered: AUCCRO calls parliamentarians to adjust Tax Code

All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations calls on Parliament to support draft law 5050, which eliminates a number of inaccuracies in the Tax Code regarding the non-profit status of religious organizations.

On September 20, relevant appeals were sent by AUCCRO chairman Valery Antonyuk to the parliament leadership, specialized committees and factions, the Institute of Religious Freedom reports.

These appeals refer to the issues, which the religious communities of all faiths face, and which were discussed during a meeting of the Secretariat of the AUCCRO on September 14.

In its appeals, the AUCCRO calls attention to the threatening situation involving the incorrect requirements of paragraph 133.4.1 of the Tax Code to religious organizations, which in the tax inspectors’ view could be interpreted as prohibiting any charity activities and charity in favor of the religious organization. Another problem is the need to re-register the statutes of all registered religious organizations (about 35 thousand) by the end of 2016 as a condition to preserve of their non-profit status.

“Draft law 5050, designed with the participation of parliamentary and public experts, members of the Committee and representatives of churches, eliminates errors of the Tax Code, given the specificity of religious organizations (possibility to carry out deeds of charity and compassion in favor of co-religionists), and greatly solve the problem of their overall re-registration," AUCCRO understanding.

The explanatory note to Draft Law 5050, the authors of legislative initiative note that "the relevant authorities are not physically able to re-implement changes to the statutes (regulations) of religious organizations in due time,” i.e. before January 1, 2017. In their opinion, "the current situation threatens to paralyze all the charitable activities of religious organizations,” which the proposed changes should prevent.

In addition, the AUCCRO has proposed the Finance Ministry to postpone for one year the date of the final amendments to the statutes profit organizations established in paragraphs 34 and 35, subsection 4 section XX "Transitional Provisions" of the Tax Code.