Some Aspects of Determining the Legal Status of Taxpayers Who Carries Out Independent Professional Activities
Authors: Postoronko Yevhen 
Published: March 2023

Problem setting. The issue of the legal status of taxpayers engaged in independent professional activity deserves special attention and has repeatedly been the subject of scientific research due to its ambiguous regulation in the Tax Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine «On Collection and Accounting of a Single Contribution to mandatory state social insurance», judicial, law-enforcement and rule-making practices, as well as the views of scientists Analysis of recent researches and publications. Тhe following scientists paid attention to this issue O.O. Dmytryk, V.A. Ryadinska, L.V. Tovkun, N.A. Maryniv, O.O. Golovashevych, T.B. Vilchik, O.O. Jaburiya, N.M. Bakayanova and others. Target of the research is to characterize the legal status of taxpayers engaged in independent professional activity, to indicate the shortcomings of its legal regulation and ways to eliminate them. Article’s main body. The article analyzes aspects of determining the legal status of taxpayers who carries out independent professional activities. When determining the legal status of taxpayers engaged in independent professional activity, it is first of all necessary to take into account its legal regulation. At the same time, it is worth proceeding from general approaches to establishing the legal status of taxpayers. A systematic analysis of the norms of the Tax Code allows us to state that the concept of a taxpayer who conducts independent professional activity is specific to such a generic category as a self-employed person, so the legal status of such an entity acquires specificity, compared to the general legal status of a taxpayer. At the same time, the legislator designates special, specific types of activity, the receipt of income from which is subject to a different, than the usual, taxation procedure. As can be seen, this aspect once again emphasizes that the legal status of the designated persons as taxpayers has its own characteristics, compared to the general legal status of taxpayers. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The legal status of taxpayers engaged in independent professional activity through the prism of the elements of tax liability in the broadest sense. It was established that currently the Tax Code of Ukraine enshrines such a category of taxpayers as a self-employed person. The approach proposed by the legislator delineates the following types of entities: natural persons-entrepreneurs and natural persons engaged in independent professional activity. According to the norms of the PC of Ukraine, these two types of self-employed persons are currently marked as mutually exclusive. At the same time, the legislation provides for the possibility to be registered with the regulatory bodies for such subjects as an individual entrepreneur with a sign of independent professional activity. This indicates a contradictory normative regulation of the legal status of taxpayers engaged in independent professional activity. Attention is drawn to the fact that taxpayers engaged in independent professional activity as self-employed persons, fulfilling their tax obligations, are limited in their ability to choose a taxation system (general or special), unlike the second type of self-employed persons individual entrepreneurs. The specified two types of self-employed persons are not in an equal (unified) state, which discriminates against natural persons engaged in independent professional activity and indicates the need to improve the normative consolidation of the status of such subjects.