Court cancels fine for accountant for late payment of the single social contribution due to expiration of liability periods

The Khmelnytskyi City District Court considered the claim of the chief accountant of the enterprise against the Southern Interregional Department of the State Tax Service for work with large taxpayers regarding the cancellation of the administrative offense ruling, which fined her for allegedly late accrual and payment of the single social contribution.

Circumstances of the case and plaintiff's arguments

In case No. 686/13886/26, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the Southern Interregional Department of the State Tax Service for work with large taxpayers of the State Tax Service of Ukraine to recognize as unlawful and cancel the ruling on the administrative offense, which held the plaintiff administratively liable under part 1 of article 165-1 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses and imposed a fine of 560 UAH.

The plaintiff considers the ruling on the imposition of the administrative penalty unlawful and subject to cancellation. This was reported in court.

The court established that the plaintiff works as a chief accountant and a ruling was issued against her for violation of part 1 of article 165-1 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, paragraph 2 of part 11 of article 25 of the Law of Ukraine dated 08.07.2010 No. 2464-VI, subparagraph 2 of paragraph 2 of section VII of the Instruction on the procedure for accrual and payment of the single social contribution for compulsory state social insurance No. 459, regarding untimely accrued (transferred) and untimely paid (late transfer) single contribution in the amount of 303,501.24 UAH.

On March 2, 2026, a protocol was drawn up against the plaintiff, and on May 1, 2026, a ruling was issued imposing an administrative penalty, holding her administratively liable under part 1 of article 165-1 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses and imposing a fine of 560 UAH.

The plaintiff received the said ruling by postal service of JSC "Ukrposhta" on May 5, 2026.

The plaintiff did not receive notification about the time and date of the consideration of the administrative offense case materials, namely the ruling on the imposition of the fine, which deprived the plaintiff of the opportunity to take measures to defend herself.

The tax audit was conducted from November 20, 2025, to January 21, 2026.

Based on the audit results, the Southern Interregional Department of the State Tax Service for work with large taxpayers drew up an Act dated January 28, 2026.

However, the audit Act was drawn up based on the results of a documentary planned field audit, while the ruling on the administrative penalty refers to the act of a documentary unscheduled audit. That is, the penalty ruling was made based on information unknown to both the LLC and the plaintiff.

Why the court canceled the fine

According to part 1 of article 38 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, an administrative penalty may be imposed no later than two months from the day the offense was committed, and in the case of a continuing offense - no later than two months from the day it was detected, except for cases where administrative offense cases are under the jurisdiction of the court (judge) according to this Code.

The provisions of article 38 of the Code establish deadlines after which the imposition of administrative penalties is excluded.

As follows from the content of article 38 of the Code, the start of the period for imposing an administrative penalty is the day the administrative offense was committed. This article does not provide other conditions for counting this period except for continuing offenses.

The ruling on the imposition of the administrative penalty does not specify the date of the offense but refers to the audit act dated January 28, 2026, according to which the violation was committed in the period from April 2019 to September 2025.

Considering that the administrative offense under part 1 of article 165-1 of the Code is not of a continuing nature, at the time of issuing the said ruling, the deadlines for bringing the defendant to administrative responsibility had expired.

In view of the above, the court concluded that there are grounds to cancel the ruling on holding the plaintiff administratively liable under part 1 of article 165-1 of the Code and imposing an administrative penalty in the form of a fine of 535.48 UAH, and to close the administrative offense case due to expiration of the deadlines for imposing administrative penalties at the time of case consideration and the presence of procedural violations during the preparation of administrative materials.

An appeal may be filed against the court decision.

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