--- title: "“We’re Paying Tax Twice on the Same Product”: Philip Morris Ukraine Demands a Review of Excise Stamp Write-Off Rules After Missile Strikes" description: "Philip Morris Ukraine has been forced to pay excise duty again on goods destroyed by a Russian missile in Kyiv. The company is demanding amendments to the Tax Code." date: 2026-09-07T13:28:01.000Z lang: en url: https://xab.info/en/posts/philip-morris-ukraine-double-excise-missile-strike-ukraine tags: [] publisher: "XAB.info" --- # “We’re Paying Tax Twice on the Same Product”: Philip Morris Ukraine Demands a Review of Excise Stamp Write-Off Rules After Missile Strikes ![Philip Morris International logo on the company office sign, as the firm demands a review of excise stamp write-off rules in Ukraine](https://xab.info/media/2026/09/07/filip-morris-ukraina-dvoynoy-akciz-razet-ukrayina/filip-morris-ukraina-dvoynoy-akciz-razet-ukrayina-1.webp) The tobacco giant Philip Morris Ukraine has publicly highlighted a systemic double-taxation problem the company faced after a Russian missile destroyed its Kyiv warehouse of finished goods. This was stated by the company’s Deputy General Director for Corporate Relations, Mykhailo Polyakov, at the event “Top Managers Who Hold the Country Together. Dialogues with NV,” where the losses of major businesses from hostilities were discussed. According to him, the excise duty already paid on the goods destroyed in the strike on the Kyiv warehouse alone amounted to 450 million hryvnias — yet current legislation does not allow the company to offset this payment and obtain new excise stamps without paying the tax again. ### Five Strikes in Four Years of War Polyakov emphasized that Philip Morris Ukraine has already suffered its fifth strike on production or warehouse facilities since the start of the full-scale invasion. The first incident occurred back in 2022, when a Russian missile hit the factory’s administrative building in Kharkiv. After that, the company decided to relocate production to Lviv Oblast, where, according to Obozrevatel, the new factory subsequently reached its planned capacity. However, the relocated warehouse was also hit by a missile. Polyakov noted that a significant portion of the damage in that case was linked not so much to the fire itself as to its extinguishing: due to water, a large amount of tobacco products became unsuitable for sale. The fourth and, by the company’s assessment, the most painful strike hit the warehouse in Kyiv. The fifth — a partner’s warehouse, where products were also destroyed. ### Wartime Bureaucracy: How Wet Stamps Are Written Off A separate and, in Polyakov’s words, absurd problem has become the procedure for writing off damaged products and excise stamps. Company employees are still finding wet products and manually removing the paper excise stamps from them, as required by current law. After that, the stamps must be glued onto an A4-format sheet, a corresponding register must be compiled, and the package must be submitted to the tax authority. Only after the entire procedure is completed can the company claim new excise stamps. Polyakov called this mechanism a vivid example of how peacetime legislation continues to operate under conditions of a full-scale war. According to him, it will soon be a year since the incident at the Kyiv warehouse, and the procedure is still not complete. ### The Insurance Gap: 30 Million Versus 450 Million Polyakov cited the Kyiv incident as an example of how the real war risks for major businesses do not match the capabilities of state mechanisms to insure them. In March, the government tripled the maximum insurance coverage for war risks under the relevant program — from 10 to 30 million hryvnias. Meanwhile, the excise duty paid on the destroyed products alone amounted to 450 million hryvnias, i.e. roughly 15 times the maximum insurance coverage limit. If the full value of the destroyed products is taken into account, the gap, by the company representative’s estimate, exceeds 20 times. Thus, even with maximum insurance compensation, the company remains without reimbursement for the overwhelming majority of its losses. ### “A Paradoxical Situation”: Double Excise on One Product The essence of the tax paradox the company insists on is as follows. Philip Morris Ukraine purchases excise stamps in advance and pays the corresponding excise duty before the goods even reach the market. If the products together with the stamps are destroyed in a missile strike and it is physically impossible to return the stamps, current legislation does not allow the already-paid excise to be offset and new stamps to be obtained. This problem is especially acute for imported products. As a result, to replace the destroyed goods, the company has to buy excise stamps again and pay the excise duty a second time. “It turns into a paradoxical situation: the products were destroyed by a Russian missile, we never sold them, but we have already paid the excise on them. And to import the same quantity of products as a replacement, we must pay the excise again. In other words, the business is effectively paying tax twice on the same product,” Polyakov explained.### What the Company Is Proposing to the State Polyakov stressed that Philip Morris Ukraine is not asking the state to compensate the value of the destroyed products or to return funds from the budget. Instead, the company proposes to create a mechanism that would allow obtaining new excise stamps in place of those destroyed as a result of hostilities, provided the excise duty on them has already been paid. This requires amendments to the Tax Code that would permit, in the case of documented destruction of products and excise stamps as a result of hostilities, to obtain new stamps without paying the excise duty again. Polyakov assured that the company is in dialogue with the state and expects to find a systemic solution to this problem. Against the backdrop of data from Delo indicating that in 2024 Philip Morris paid 38% more taxes to the Ukrainian budget than in the previous period, the question of the fair distribution of war risks between business and the state gains additional urgency. ## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification - [Philip Morris in Ukraine Risks Paying Excise Twice on Goods Destroyed by Russia: What Is the Problem with the Law](https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/philip-morris-ukrayini-rizikue-vdruge-splatiti-1788787586.html) - Подтверждено по источнику rbc.ua - [A Missile Destroyed the Goods, but the Excise Will Have to Be Paid a Second Time — What Problem Did ... Face](https://biz.nv.ua/markets/poteri-ukrainskogo-biznesa-ot-obstrelov-sluchai-filip-morris-ukraina-50635974.html) - Подтверждено по источнику biz.nv.ua - [“Philip Morris” Paid 38% More Taxes to the Ukrainian Budget in 2024](https://delo.ua/ru/news/filipp-morris-uplatila-na-38-bolse-nalogov-v-byudzet-ukrainy-v-2024-godu-441214/) - Подтверждено по источнику delo.ua - [Philip Morris’s New Factory in Lviv Oblast Has Reached Its Planned Capacity](https://www.obozrevatel.com/ekonomika-glavnaya/novaya-fabrika-filipp-morris-vo-lvovskoj-oblasti-vyishla-na-planovuyu-moschnost.htm) - Подтверждено по источнику obozrevatel.com