Winning the lawsuit with the State Tax Service of Ukraine

Legal Alliance Company's team, consisting of Counsel Vitalii Savchuk and Senior Associate Yaroslav Furiaka, won a court dispute with the State Tax Service of Ukraine. The subject of the appeal was the status of "permanent representation" of an international pharmaceutical company in Ukraine, as well as multimillion sanctions.

The tax officers said the implementation of registration, pharmacovigilance, marketing activities in respect of medicines with applicants other than pharmaceuticals, would indicate the commercial status of the foreign representation.

The tax authorities further justified their position by the fact that the amount of financing of the representation is a significant percentage of the receipts of the pharmaceutical company in Ukraine. This was the first time that this approach had been applied by the tax authorities in judicial practice.

After conducting a detailed analysis of the practice, local and international tax legislation, collecting the necessary amount of evidence, the attorneys-at-law at Legal Alliance Company were able to prove groundlessness of the tax authorities' accusations.

As a result of the proceedings, all tax notices and decisions were revoked, including fines.

"In addition to immediate claims, I also see the long-term objectives of all such disputes," Vitalii Savchuk comments. "Firstly, surely, the fate of the client's future tax periods depends on the court's ruling. Secondly, almost every final judgement can affect the market, since there are not so many such disputes in pharmaceuticals. There have been more of them recently, perhaps because the government needs money. However, I object to it receiving it at any cost."