On June 9, the Verkhovna Rada adopted bill #15111-d in the second reading and as a whole. Formally, it is a law on taxation of digital platforms and a structural benchmark in the cooperation program with the IMF. But inside it contains an amendment that changes the rules of the game for hundreds of thousands of landlords: the personal income tax rate for individuals renting out real estate is reduced from 18% to 5% from January 1, 2027.
What is changing
Currently, an official landlord pays 18% personal income tax plus 5% military levy — totaling 23% of income. After the norm takes effect, only 5% personal income tax and 5% military levy will remain: the total tax burden drops to 10%. According to the head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on local self-government and urban development Olena Shulyak, the reform is intended to encourage property owners to voluntarily come out of the shadows.
Property owners will continue to be required to independently file annual tax returns and pay taxes to the budget — the law does not provide for any automatic withholding through platforms or intermediaries.
The figure that explains everything
According to the State Tax Service, in 2024, only 900 people declared rental income — totaling 16 million hryvnias. This is despite estimates by Obozrevatel citing Shulyak that over 90% of rental agreements in Ukraine are concluded informally.
"Shadow rental is not only billions in budget losses, but also the inability to help millions of internally displaced persons"
— Liga.net on the context of the reform
Internally displaced persons became one of the triggers for change: most of those who lost housing due to the war rent informally — and for this reason cannot receive any state subsidies or legal protection.
An unexpected angle: rate reduction without enforcement mechanisms
The reform is built on the logic of "make it profitable — and people will voluntarily come out of the shadows." But the law contains neither strengthened control over classified ad platforms nor mandatory identification of landlords through Diia or bank transactions. In other words, someone who did not declare at 23% must decide: is it worth starting at 10%?
The comparison is telling: a simplified liability company in group 3 pays 5% unified tax while being required to maintain records, register, and submit reporting. A landlord under the new norm gets the same rate — without registration and without a cash register. This is either the simplest taxation in the country, or an insufficient incentive for those who have never contacted the tax authority.
The law — part of a larger puzzle
#15111-d is one of the IMF's structural benchmarks: as Forbes Ukraine reports, the continuation of the financial support program is tied to fulfilling such conditions. Digital platform taxation — the main provision of the law — introduces international automatic exchange of information about income, including from Airbnb and similar services. This could theoretically "expose" some landlords who were previously invisible to the State Tax Service.
The date of entry into force is January 1, 2027. Until then, the question remains open: whether verification tools will appear, or whether the reform will remain merely a change in the rate on paper.
If by 2027 the State Tax Service does not acquire tools to identify landlords through classified ad platforms and banking data — the figure of "900 declarations" may grow to, say, 9,000, but not to the 900,000 needed for real market legalization.
