Thanks to joint work of experts from the IT Ukraine Association and the Office for Effective Regulation (BRDO), the Ministry of Justice recently made one small, but an extremely important step towards simplifying the Ukrainian business for non-residents.
The main "beneficiary" of the story is the Ukrainian IT-industry, which, despite its rapid growth and a solid wage level, is experiencing a sharp shortage of personnel.
The attraction of foreign specialists is an important driver for the development of the Ukrainian IT-industry. First, it contributes to the exchange of valuable experience in the industry, which allows the development of local specialists, raising their level of qualification. Secondly, external work resources on a contractual basis can compensate for the shortage of labor resources and increase the turnover of foreign currency earnings in Ukraine, which is very important in the light of the financial situation in the country and foreign loans.
IT, like any other business, can work with foreign professionals both on a long-term basis and on a short-term basis. And if the mechanism of working with a non-resident in the first case is more or less clear and usual (despite a number of nuances), then the algorithm of establishing the legal relations of a Ukrainian company with a citizen of another state as a natural person-entrepreneur (FOP) for short-term, design work until recently had one extremely burdensome complexity.
In theory, the registration of a private entrepreneurship in Ukraine by foreigners has long been not the most complicated process carried out under the same algorithm as for residents - the filing of a set of documents, filling in an application for state registration as a private limited company. The difficulty was hiding in the column "Place of residence/physical address of the entrepreneur", where, in accordance with the Law on state registration, information about the place of residence or other address at which it is possible to contact an entrepreneur is entered. Due to the lack of a clear explanation of what can be considered a "different address", registrars have obliged a foreigner to have a registered place of residence, that is, a residence permit.
This situation complicated the scenarios of short-term work of IT-companies with foreigners. To come for a short period of time in the country and to conclude an economic contract with the Ukrainian company as a private enterprise meant still to go, to put it mildly, the difficult procedure of issuing a residence permit.
Thanks to the openness and efficiency of the Ministry of Justice, an explanation has been made, which greatly simplifies the procedure for the opening a private entrepreneurship by foreigners. To register as an individual entrepreneur, non-residents no longer need to obtain a residence permit; it is enough to have a real estate lease agreement to confirm their place of residence.
This, it would seem, a small measure will give impetus not only to the IT-industry but also make Ukraine more open and attractive for foreign entrepreneurs, will remove a number of existing barriers. For example, a foreigner can "try" business in our country - without major investments at the initial stage, without unnecessary bureaucratic vicissitudes, just coming to us and starting to conduct business. And of course, an important plus of this innovation is the taxes that will be paid to the Ukrainian budget.
A good start is half the business. Who knows, maybe well-thought-out migration policy to ensure the free movement of labor capital on both sides is not so far as it seems?
