Taxes on UAH 339 million of Kobolev's bonuses for Naftogaz's victory in Stockholm arbitration still not paid
Taxes in the amount of UAH 66 million from the bonuses of UAH 339 million that the former chairman of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Andrii Kobolev, received in 2021, have still not been paid.
Yurii Vitrenko, who in 2021-2022 held the position of the chairman of the board of Naftogaz, has stated this on Facebook, and Kobolev himself actually confirmed this in an interview with Forbes Ukraine, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
Vitrenko reported that a few days before that he had appeared as a witness in the High Anti-Corruption Court in the case of misappropriation of state funds when paying Kobolev bonuses for Naftogaz's victory in the Stockholm arbitration over Gazprom.
"During my interrogation, Kobolev's lawyers "hinted" at my alleged involvement in tax evasion by Naftogaz. This outrages me, because in reality it is about Kobolev's own failure to pay personal income tax (PIT) in the amount of UAH 61 million and military duty in the amount of UAH 5 million - from the "second part" of his "Stockholm arbitration" bonus in the amount of UAH 339 million received by him in 2021," Vitrenko wrote.
According to him, Kobolev was supposed to receive the bonus by the end of 2019, because under the terms of the employment contracts of Naftogaz employees, the "second part" of the "Stockholm arbitration" bonus was supposed to be paid by the end of the quarter in which the money was received from Gazprom (Q4 2019).
"And after the scandal with the "first part" in 2018, Kobolev publicly promised that he would direct all bonuses in 2019 to charity. So, it was beneficial for him that the "second part" was paid not in 2019, but already at the beginning of 2020. It is not surprising that it was never paid in 2019. And at the beginning of 2020, there was already political publicity - the then Prime Minister Honcharuk sent a letter demanding to refrain from payments," writes Vitrenko.
For these reasons, according to him, Kobolev created a bank guarantee mechanism in order to receive funds guaranteedly, and when he left his post in early 2021, he did not give an order to pay himself all the funds on the last day of work, as required by law upon dismissal, but received them later from the bank through the guarantee mechanism.
"Naftogaz does not withhold personal income tax from this amount, because the company did not pay it. The bank also does not withhold tax from this amount (a separate question is why). The bank simply informs Naftogaz that it paid Kobolev the entire amount without withholding tax. Naftogaz sends Kobolev a letter reminding him that he must pay the tax himself. Kobolev does not pay tax in 2021. And he doesn't pay in 2022 (when the deadline for submitting the declaration for 2021 came)," Vitrenko writes.
Kobolev himself, in an interview with Forbes Ukraine, in response to the question of whether taxes were paid on this amount (the journalist also mentioned Vitrenko's post above), noted that this should be asked to Naftogaz, which acts as a tax agent in this situation and had to pay the tax.
"This should be asked to Mr. Vitrenko himself, who was the head of Naftogaz at the time, but, according to my modest knowledge of the Tax Code, the employer, who is the tax agent, is always responsible for paying taxes on wages. And why Naftogaz did not fulfill its standard function, it is necessary to explain to those who were responsible for it," Kobolev noted.
He does not believe that the amount of UAH 339 million he received is a "pre-tax" amount.
"I received exactly the amount that was stipulated by the decisions of the supervisory board, which were, among other things, agreed with the Cabinet of Ministers. "I have no answer to why someone thinks that the company should not pay tax in this case," Kobolev added.
Vitrenko believes that Kobolev is wrong here, because the decisions of the supervisory board do not indicate that this amount is an amount after tax, and moreover, it is not indicated as final in the national currency, because it had to be converted into hryvnia on the day of payment.
In addition, Vitrenko emphasized that Naftogaz did not pay Kobolev the money directly, but transferred it to the bank to cover the guarantee, and the bank says that it fulfilled its obligations under the guarantee, and did not transfer the salary, therefore, neither Naftogaz nor the bank consider themselves tax agents regarding this payment.
"But even if there is a "misunderstanding" between them, it does not change anything. Kobolev received UAH 339 million in income in Ukraine. He sees that taxes have not been paid. And by law he is obliged to pay them. To some, this casuistry seems important, but the essence is simple. Kobolev received a salary - therefore, he must pay taxes on it. He knows that no one withheld tax from his bonus. And he knows that the "tax agent" pays taxes from the employee's money, not from his own. Therefore - both by law and by justice - Kobolev had and must pay tax on his salary," Vitrenko summarizes.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, according to the contracts, the company's management must be paid a bonus of 1% of the USD 2.918 billion received from Gazprom, that is, USD 29.18 million.
In 2018, Andrii Kobolev received a bonus of UAH 286.5 million (including the bonus for winning the Stockholm Arbitration in the amount of UAH 261 million).
In 2021, he received UAH 338 million in compensation for his work at the company, as the Naftogaz press service noted at the time under the guarantee agreement.
In January 2023, NABU incriminated Kobolev with an illegal offer to pay himself a UAH 10 million bonus and misleading the NJSC Supervisory Board, which approved this decision.
Kobolev's case is being considered by the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine.