Ukraine scraps VAT exemption on parcels under €150: Verovna Rada committee backs bill for the third time

The Verovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy has recommended that the parliament adopt as a basis and in its entirety bill No. 15112-d, which provides for the abolition of the current VAT exemption for international shipments valued at up to €150. This was announced by People's Deputy Olha Vasylievska-Smahliuk, who clarified that the recommendation was issued taking into account technical and legal amendments. According to People's Deputy Yaroslav Zhelezniak, this is the third time the relevant committee has supported an initiative to scrap the exemption for parcels under €150 — previously bills No. 15460 and No. 15112-d were also considered.

What exactly changes for buyers

Currently, goods in international shipments valued at up to €150 are fully exempt from VAT. Bill No. 15112-d, which forms the tax component of a package of changes to the taxation of international parcels and e-commerce, proposes to abolish this exemption for commercial goods. If adopted, VAT at a rate of 20% will be levied on the full value of the goods starting from the first euro, rather than from the €150 threshold. A separate mechanism is provided for purchases made through electronic platforms: the tax will be included in the final purchase price, and the platform itself will be responsible for calculating and remitting it to the budget. The Ministry of Finance plans to use the IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) model, similar to the one applied in the European Union: the buyer sees the final price including VAT at the time of ordering and pays it in a single payment, without filling in any additional documents.

Why the reform is long overdue: customs data

Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko justifies the reform by the need to create equal conditions for Ukrainian and foreign businesses. In his words, domestic producers and importers pay VAT, whereas a significant share of goods arriving from abroad via international shipments enjoys a tax exemption. The scale of the phenomenon is confirmed by data from the State Customs Service: in 2025, international postal and express shipments worth UAH 167.3 billion entered Ukraine, of which UAH 92.9 billion (55.5%) were not taxed. For comparison, in 2023 the volume of untaxed imports was around UAH 40 billion — over two years it more than doubled. The trend continues in 2026: over seven months, the total value of international parcels reached UAH 136.3 billion, of which UAH 56.8 billion (42%) were not subject to VAT. The Ministry of Finance also notes that the current system creates incentives to split commercial batches into separate shipments to avoid paying taxes.

Budget expectations and implementation timeline

According to Serhiy Marchenko's estimate, after the new model is introduced, the budget could receive around UAH 10 billion in additional revenue annually. The minister also links the reform to the need to reduce the structural deficit of the balance of payments, which, in his words, stands at around $50 billion for the current year. Over the seven months of 2026, imports grew by 33%, while exports rose by only 4%, meaning the rate of import growth was almost eight times higher than the rate of export growth. At the same time, the final price of goods for the consumer does not necessarily rise by exactly 20%: the seller or marketplace may partially offset the tax from its own margin, adjust the price, or offer a discount. The new system is not planned to be implemented before January 1, 2027 — it will only come into force after the readiness of all participants in the international postal shipment market and the necessary IT solutions has been confirmed.

Contradictory data

Public statements on the financial consequences of the reform feature two substantially different figures. On the one hand, Serhiy Marchenko, presenting the initiative in committee, stated that without adopting the bill, Ukraine "may fail to receive €4 billion." On the other hand, official Ministry of Finance estimates speak of around UAH 10 billion in additional annual budget revenue. The difference between these figures is more than 15-fold (UAH 10 billion at an exchange rate of around 40 UAH/euro equates to roughly €250 million). The €4 billion figure may reflect cumulative budget losses over several years or include indirect economic effects; however, no such distinction is provided in the sources, and both figures are cited as estimates by the same minister. Until the bill is adopted in its final reading, the exact scale of the budgetary effect remains a matter of debate.

Bill No. 15112-d is currently at the stage of a recommendation from the relevant committee. To enter into force, it must pass first reading, refinement in committee, second reading, and a vote in the plenary chamber. Experts and market participants expect that the key condition for launch will be the technical readiness of the infrastructure — both on the part of customs authorities and on the part of international marketplaces, which must integrate the IOSS mechanism into their payment systems.