Half of Ukrainians believe entrepreneurs are law-abiding and are convinced that tax and customs authorities hinder them – survey

Half of Ukrainians (50.7%) believe that the vast majority of entrepreneurs are law-abiding, so tax and customs authorities should catch violators and not interfere with the work of honest entrepreneurs.

This is according to the results of a sociological survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology at the request of the Centre for Social and Economic Research CASE Ukraine.

At the same time, 42.6% of respondents are convinced that without careful control of the tax and customs authorities, most entrepreneurs will not pay taxes voluntarily.

Another 6.7% of Ukrainians answered "It is difficult to answer / I don't know" to the question "Will entrepreneurs voluntarily pay taxes without excessive control and coercion by the tax service and customs?"

The survey was conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in February 2023. Based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers, 2001 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed. The sample did not include residents of the territories temporarily not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities until 24 February 2022 and citizens who left the country after 24 February 2022. The statistical error of the sample does not exceed 2.4%.

Background. As a reminder, according to a survey of business executives conducted by the NBU in the first quarter of 2023, businesses continued to mitigate their negative expectations about both their own development and the dynamics of production of goods and services in Ukraine over the next 12 months: inflation and exchange rate expectations improved.

The Index of Business Expectations (IBE) rose to 91.2%, up from 83.5% in Q4 2022. The improvement in assessments was seen in almost all types of economic activity, except for construction and trade.