VR DECIDES TO EXEMPT CHURCHES FROM PROPERTY TAX
Institute of Religious Liberty, 7 April 2015
The Ukrainian Supreme Soviet [Verkhovnaia Rada--VR] supported on first reading a draft law aimed at exempting religious organizations from the new tax on immovable property.
On 7 April 2015, 261 people's deputies of Ukraine voted for this, the Institute of Religious Liberty reports.
All parliamentary fractions supported this initiative, whose authors were deputies Pavel Ungurian, Nina Yuzhanina, and Adnrei Shipko from the inter-fractional deputies' association "For spirituality, morality, and health of Ukraine."
The draft law aimed to exempt on the legislative level religious organizations from the recently introduced taxes on nonresidential and residential immovable property. The preconditions for this were the contradictory decisions of local governmental bodies that often or entirely refused to grant tax privileges to religious organization or selectively and in a discriminatory form exempted from taxation only certain religious societies or confessions.
At the same time, during consideration of the draft law a discussion occurred about just what objects of immovable property with a religious purpose should be exempted from taxation. In particular, deputies of the fractions People's Front and Self-Help spoke in favor of granting privileges to all religious buildings except those that are used for commercial production activity. However some legislators expressed readiness to exempt from taxation only those houses of worship in which services are held.
In order to take into account all the specifics of taxation of immovable property with a religious purpose, Supreme Soviet Chairman Vladimir Groisman suggested to not adopt the bill immediately as a basis and on the whole, but to send it to the relevant committee for improvement for second reading.
Separately, the people's deputies voted for the preparation of the bill for second reading by abbreviated process. (tr. by PDS, posted 8 April 2015)
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