The tax authorities want to take away a mansion in Kyiv from the Union of Writers of Ukraine for debts - next to the Poroshenko administration

The real estate of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine (NSPU) in Odessa and Kharkov was described by the State Tax Service (SFS) as a property collateral for a land tax debt in the amount of UAH 1,5 million.

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This was announced by the Chairman of the NSPU Mikhail Sidorzhevsky in an interview with Dzerkalo Tyzhnya.

“The Chairman of the NSPU confirmed that the Union was faced with the threat of losing its land,” the statement said.

According to Sidorzhevsky, today the writers' houses in Odessa and Irpen, the Naftusya boarding house in Truskavets, and the Writers' House in Kyiv are unprofitable.

In particular, the losses of the Irpin House of Creativity for the year amounted to 302 thousand UAH. At the same time, from January 1, 2017, the Irpin City Council increased the tax on the use of BTP, which now amounts to 98 thousand UAH per month (with Union budget funding of 920 thousand UAH per year).

“I’ll give examples. From January 1, 2016, the amount of land tax for the use of a land plot (0,36 hectares) on the street. Bankovaya, 2 in Kyiv amounted to 157 thousand UAH per month. It is clear that this amount is absolutely unaffordable for the Union, and we did not pay this tax. It was possible to ensure that from June 1, 2016, the monthly land tax was reduced to 52 thousand UAH (today it is 56 thousand UAH). But we cannot pay this amount either. Consequently, we are working to minimize the amount of land tax to 0,03%,” Sidorzhevsky noted.

Consequently, part of the Union’s property - real estate in Odessa and Kharkov - has already been described by the tax service as a property pledge.

“This means that in case of failure to repay the land tax debt (and today it amounts to about 1 million 500 thousand UAH), part of the property will be sold through the court without fail - in order to cover the debts to the Kyiv City State Administration. Moreover, at prices significantly lower than the cost of this property,” summed up the head of the Union.

Collection of the debt is planned through the court, which began on April 7 under an accelerated procedure through the confiscation and auction of creative houses that belong to the Union in Odessa and Kharkov.

The press service of the organization recalled that from January 1, 2016, the Kyiv City Council established the maximum amount of land tax for national creative unions. Thus, the NSPU calculated about 157 thousand UAH per month in tax for the use of a land plot of 0,37 hectares at the address vul. Bankovaya, 2, where the Writer's House, the central office of the Union, is located.

“This is an absolutely unaffordable amount for the Writers’ Union. After numerous appeals from the leaders of creative unions to the capital's deputies, from May 31 last year the amount of land tax was reduced threefold, but the tax debt was left, and the NSPU did not have the opportunity to pay it and does not have the opportunity today. The tax authorities refused the request to defer the debt, and thus the houses of writers in Odessa and Kharkov, tasty morsels for commercial structures, will be described and put up for auction through the court. And there is virtually no chance of saving union property without paying the debt. Nobody cares that the Union is a non-profit, non-profit organization,” complains the chairman of the NSPU, Mikhail Sidorzhevsky.

In recent years, 920 thousand hryvnia have been allocated from the state budget for the Writers' Union per year.

“The Union has never been so difficult in the entire history of its existence. Even during the time of Yanukovych, almost two million hryvnia were allocated to the Union in 2012 and 1 million 765 thousand UAH in 2013,” said the chairman of the NSPU.

According to Sidorzhevsky, in this way the Union has been placed in a “stalemate” situation, when the tax burden is several times greater than budget funding. He calls for the land tax for creative unions to be reduced to an acceptable level, as it was before 2016.