Plan contractor hiring in Ukraine

Engage a Ukrainian individual entrepreneur under a service agreement and pay the agreed business fee against the documents chosen for the assignment. The local abbreviation is FOP, and its tax status deserves an early check: registration as an entrepreneur and eligibility for a particular simplified-tax group are separate questions. For a foreign customer with no Ukrainian entity or permanent establishment, Ukrainian personal-income-tax withholding does not ordinarily sit with the customer: the Tax Code treats a nonresident as a person who is not a tax agent. The contractor remains responsible for the taxes applicable to their own business. Record that allocation alongside the agreed fee before approving the supplier.

Sources: State Tax Service, Foreign currency income of a FOP, State Tax Service, Tax Code article 168

Витяг з реєстру платників єдиного податку

Extract from the single-tax payer register

Request a current single-tax register extract when the contractor says they use simplified taxation. It confirms the tax record already held by the State Tax Service; requesting a new copy does not update that record. This matters when a supplier has recently changed their name, address or activity. The contractor must first complete the relevant updates, let the tax authority process them, and then obtain the extract. If an extract still shows the previous details, return the onboarding record for correction instead of assuming that the date of download makes all of its contents current.

Issued by: The State Tax Service provides the extract to the contractor, who can share it with the customer.

Timing: Request at onboarding and after a relevant change to the supplier's tax details.

Sources: State Tax Service, Updating FOP registration details

A qualifying consulting or software-development invoice to an overseas business can carry no Ukrainian VAT because the service is supplied where the customer is established. Article 186.3(c) covers specified services, including consulting, engineering, legal and accounting services, software development and testing. For those supplies to a business abroad, the transaction is outside Ukrainian VAT. The service description therefore matters more than the fact that payment comes from another country. Ask the supplier to identify what they are providing and the basis for the VAT decision, especially where a contract bundles different services. The customer's own country's VAT obligations need their own assessment.

Sources: State Tax Service, VAT on consulting services

What an invoice has to show

• An інвойс or акт that identifies the exported service

  An invoice can be one of the documents confirming a service export; an act of completed services is another. Ukrainian rules also allow a non-transport service export contract to be formed electronically, including through an invoice. Decide in the agreement which document will confirm delivery and what the customer must approve. Then make the invoice's description and service period specific enough to match that agreed work. A request for payment made before delivery should be distinguishable from confirmation that delivery has occurred. Avoid requiring an additional act solely because the supplier is Ukrainian when the agreed documentation already establishes the service.

  Sources: State Tax Service, Documents confirming exported services

• Service dates and the agreed primary-document signature procedure

  For Ukrainian primary accounting documents, a customer's signature can be omitted under a defined service-document rule. The document must identify the service date or period, a written contract must provide for this approach, and the operation must be recorded in the accounting period when it occurred. The exception excludes public funding, state or municipal leases, construction and design-survey work, and donation or aid contracts. Where the contractor uses this rule, align the written agreement and document before payment approval. It concerns the contractor's Ukrainian records and does not itself require the overseas customer to keep Ukrainian statutory accounts.

  Sources: State Tax Service, FOP primary documents

Agree the billing event and payment due date in the service contract. Under Ukrainian law, a paid service is payable in the amount, at the time and by the procedure set out in that agreement. This makes a clear acceptance process valuable: identify who checks delivery, where the invoice goes and what starts the payment period. If the parties choose Ukrainian law, those terms supply the practical payment schedule; an internal procurement cycle should be reflected in the agreement if it affects the due date. For an electronic service-export agreement, retain the accepted terms with the invoice so finance can check the same obligation that the contractor is relying on.

Sources: Supreme Court, Service fees under the Civil Code, State Tax Service, Documents confirming exported services

The currency on the invoice

The parties can agree foreign currency or hryvnia for the cross-border service fee, consistent with the NBU rules for resident and nonresident trade settlements. Record the currency explicitly and agree how any permitted currency substitution will be calculated. The contractor's tax records use a different calculation: a single-tax FOP translates foreign-currency income into hryvnia at the official NBU exchange rate on receipt. That accounting conversion does not change the currency you promised to pay. Keep the invoice amount, currency and payment confirmation together so any difference between the contract amount and the contractor's hryvnia tax record can be explained.

Sources: National Bank of Ukraine, Currency regulation 2, State Tax Service, Foreign currency income of a FOP

Local currency rules

The NBU's settlement-deadline exception covers exported services and work other than transport, including ordinary professional-service exports. The current exception also reflects the January 2026 removal of insurance services from the excluded category. For a consulting or software assignment, first confirm that the transaction is a service export within this rule before importing a deadline intended for goods. The exception concerns the Ukrainian export-settlement timetable; it does not replace the payment date agreed with the contractor. Identify the service accurately in the agreement and invoice, and resolve any receiving-bank question about the transaction category through the contractor before changing your payment schedule.

Sources: National Bank of Ukraine, Export settlement exceptions, National Bank of Ukraine, January 2026 amendment to settlement exceptions

Using a Diia City gig contract for a direct overseas engagement

Ukraine's statutory gig contract has a specific customer: a legal entity that holds Diia City resident status. Its obligations include paying the gig specialist and providing the conditions and social guarantees required by that regime. An overseas business cannot obtain those rules simply by calling its freelancer agreement a gig contract or copying a technology company's form. For a direct agreement with a FOP, use terms appropriate to that supplier and the actual service. If a proposed contract identifies a Diia City company as the customer, check which entity is actually contracting and paying before approving it.

Sources: State Tax Service, Diia City gig contract definition

Treating every intellectual-property payment as FOP service income

Royalties are excluded from the business-income definition used for a FOP's single tax. A contract involving software, content or other intellectual property therefore needs a clear distinction between paying for work and paying royalties for rights. Calling the document an invoice does not settle that question. Ask for separate descriptions where development services and rights payments appear together, then have the contractor confirm the appropriate tax handling for each amount. Keep the payment purpose consistent with the agreement so a service invoice is not used to conceal a payment that belongs in another income category.

Sources: State Tax Service, Foreign currency income of a FOP