Food service and retail businesses have requested an extension for the social tax exemption.

Catering and retail enterprises have approached the authorities with a proposal to extend the benefits for social taxes, as reported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

This issue was raised during a meeting of the Public Council under the President, which took place on February 3. Participants discussed previously outlined initiatives aimed at supporting businesses and reducing the shadow economy.

One of the main topics was the proposal to extend the benefits for social taxes introduced by the presidential decree in 2022. Initially, it was expected that these benefits would be in effect until the beginning of 2025.

In addition to retail and catering, the benefit was also applicable to several other sectors of the service industry. These included hotels, transportation, auto services, household appliance repair, computer services, entertainment centers, agricultural services, and veterinary services.

During the meeting, figures were presented indicating that the average salary in catering and retail enterprises benefiting from the tax relief had increased by 247.5% over nearly three years. In companies that did not utilize these benefits, salary growth was twice as slow.

The average salary of line personnel in these sectors exceeded 3 million sums at the beginning of this year. Entrepreneurs justified their proposal to maintain the benefits by stating that companies would then officially report all employees and their salaries; this, in turn, would lead to an increase in the taxable base.

To ensure compliance with the conditions under which the benefits are applied, a new procedure is planned to be introduced starting April 1. Companies that do not rectify identified tax violations within three days will be subject to on-site tax audits.

In November 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a procedure for reimbursing catering enterprises a portion of the VAT. If the share of cashless transactions in turnover is below 60%, 20% of tax payments will be reimbursed; if it exceeds this threshold, the reimbursement will be 40%.

Earlier, Spot reported that in 2024, the volume of VAT reimbursement increased by more than 15%.