Investment analysis by Ruslan Averin — originally published at averin.com.
A Ukrainian investor pays 23% on a share sold at a profit and 0% on a government bond held to maturity. The gap between those two numbers is larger than most of the return decisions people agonise over.
Here is the whole system on one page, at 2026 rates.
The rate table
| Income | PIT | Military levy | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trading gain (shares, ETFs, bonds ex-OVDP) | 18% | 5% | 23% |
| Bank deposit interest | 18% | 5% | 23% |
| Dividends, Ukrainian profit-tax payer | 5% | 5% | 10% |
| Dividends, Ukrainian single-tax payer | 9% | 5% | 14% |
| Dividends, foreign issuer | 9% | 5% | 14% |
| OVDP coupon and redemption | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Property, first sale, held over 3 years | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Property, first sale, held under 3 years | 5% | 5% | 10% |
| Property, second sale in the same year | 18% | 5% | 23% |
| Undistributed CFC profit | 18% | 5% | 23% |
Two lines in that table do most of the work.
The military levy is 5%, not 1.5%
For individuals the levy went from 1.5% to 5% on 1 December 2024. It is still 5% through 2026, and it applies to essentially anything that carries personal income tax — including foreign income, including investment profit.
This matters more than a 3.5-point rate change usually would, because almost every calculator, blog post and half-remembered rule of thumb written before 2025 says 1.5%. An investor who models 19.5% on a trading gain and pays 23% is short by a fifth of the tax bill, and the shortfall carries a penalty of its own.
Government bonds are the only genuine zero
Coupon income and redemption income on OVDP are exempt from both the personal income tax and the military levy. That is a provision of the Tax Code, not a Ministry of Finance promotion, and it is the reason a 15.5% bond beats a 17% deposit without the arithmetic being close: the deposit nets about 13.1% after the 23% bite, the bond nets 15.5%.
Every comparison between instruments in Ukraine has to be run after tax or it is not a comparison at all.
What is not settled
Crypto is the open item. Law 2074-IX on virtual assets was adopted in 2022 and never entered into force, because it was made conditional on tax rules that have not been passed. Bill 10225-d passed its first reading in April 2025 and has been listed as preparing for second reading since 3 September 2025. As of August 2026 there is no special regime — which does not mean crypto income is untaxed, only that it falls under the general rules and the specific mechanics remain contested.
The calendar
Two dates. The declaration of property status and income is filed by 1 May for the preceding year. The tax is paid by 1 August. Income earned during 2026 is declared in the spring of 2027, so the campaign you are living through now covers 2025.
Foreign income is converted at the National Bank's exchange rate on the date the income was received — not the year-end rate, not the rate on the day you file.
How I read it
The instinct is to treat tax as an accounting chore that happens after the investing. In Ukraine it is closer to the reverse: at 23% on gains and 0% on government bonds, the tax line is one of the largest single determinants of what a portfolio actually returns.
The practical order I would work in: get the residency question answered first, because it determines whether any of this applies; then find out which of your income has already been taxed abroad and whether it is creditable; then decide the instrument mix knowing the after-tax numbers rather than the headline ones.
Everything below in this cluster takes one line of the table above and works through it.
More market analysis by Ruslan Averin at averin.com.
