A chain of secondhand stores returned more than 51 million hryvnias in taxes to the Ukrainian budget

Under the procedural guidance of prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General, more than 51.5 million hryvnias in value-added tax were returned to the state budget. According to the prosecutor’s office, these funds had been concealed by a chain of secondhand stores.

According to the investigation, between 2023 and 2025, officials of the secondhand store chain used a scheme involving the artificial fragmentation of the business to minimize tax liabilities.

To sell used clothing, footwear, and other goods, transactions in the chain’s stores were registered in the names of controlled individual entrepreneurs (FOPs) who operated under the simplified taxation system.

Formally, the retail locations and sales transactions belonged to individual sole proprietors, but in reality, the stores were managed by the chain’s employees—they organized sales and fully controlled the flow of funds.

In this way, the company artificially underreported the volume of transactions subject to VAT. An analytical investigation confirmed that the amount of unpaid tax totaled over 51.5 million UAH.

During the pretrial investigation, company officials fully compensated the state for the losses incurred and paid the debt in full.

In light of this, prosecutors filed a motion with the court to exempt the responsible individuals from criminal liability under Part 4 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (evasion of taxes and fees).

This was reported by the press service of the Office of the Prosecutor General.

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