The New Nightmare for the Financial Department: SAF-T in Ukraine

Once upon a time, representatives from the state tax authorities, professional accounting associations, and software developers decided to meet. They worked diligently on the issue of digitizing tax audits, and as a result, they developed the Standard Audit File (SAF-T).

The initial goal of SAF-T was to increase automation in certain aspects of the tax audit process and save resources used for tax administration. However, it seems that these experts, back in 2005, knew more than we might have thought, as COVID-19 and the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine led to the introduction of a moratorium on physical tax audits.

While SAF-T is a new development for Ukrainian businesses, in many European countries, this format has long been established by tax authorities as a standard for automated tax reporting. Examples of such countries include Austria (2009), Portugal (2009), Luxembourg (2011), France (2014), Poland (2016), Lithuania (2019), Norway (2020), and Romania (2022).

In Ukraine, the legislative framework for SAF-T UA is still developing, and at the moment, submitting the report is mandatory only for large taxpayers and upon request from controlling authorities.

So, what’s so scary about this file, and how can it be resolved?

Stay tuned for our upcoming publications – we have some soothing solutions for you! 😊