On the way to efficient tax compliance: SAF-T UA — a modern tool for interaction with tax authorities for Ukraine

In the midst of an ongoing full-scale war, Ukraine is continuously advancing its public financial management. The E-audit, an advanced technology, empowers tax administrations to explore novel approaches to engage with significant volume of records keeping large taxpayers during the audit process, including the electronic submission of audit-related documentation. 

An electronic audit is based on information received from taxpayers in the form of a standard audit file (SAF-T), which was developed by the OECD.

What is SAF-T?

SAF-T UA is designed to implement compliance-check  measures using specialized software.  SAF-T contains accounting information about sales, purchases and other financial transactions. 

The main goal of introducing SAF-T UA is improve quality in reporting and simplify compliance procedures for large taxpayers who are keeping complex accountancy.  The  new standards  of reporting, minimization of physical control from tax authorities’ side, elimination of human factor shall implement  the principles of transparency, , effectiveness, risk-orientation, and  , what is most important, the reduction of the costs for compliance and verification.

A systematic analysis of the information transmitted by  the taxpayer to the controlling body will create opportunities for prompt identification of mistakes  in the reporting   and resolve .automatically the mismatches.

The State Tax Service of Ukraine with the support of EU4PFM is introducing  the best global practice-based tax administration initiative to streamline a modern approach and multitude of benefits to businesses.

 Enhanced Compliance and Transparency: SAF-T ensures greater accuracy and transparency in tax reporting. By standardizing file formats and content, businesses can easily comply with tax regulations, reducing the likelihood of errors or discrepancies.

 Simplified Processes: SAF-T simplifies the cumbersome task of tax data collection and submission. 

 Digital Transformation: the STS now leverages technology for smoother data analysis, aligning with global digital trends and positioning Ukraine as an innovator in tax administration.

The EU4PFM  provides a comprehensive support  for E-audit implementation by sharing EU practices,  elaborating  methodologies,  financing the  development  of XSD structure of SAF-T file, along with  an E-audit IT-solution.

For more information please follow the link:

https://tax.gov.ua/elektronna-zvitnist/xsd-viznachennya-shemi-xml/