Lost primary documents in Ukraine: 5 days to notify the STS, 90 days to restore

If primary documents are lost, damaged or destroyed before the end of the retention period, a Ukrainian organisation must notify its tax office in writing within 5 days of the event and restore the documents within 90 calendar days. Organisations that operated in areas of active hostilities or in temporarily occupied territories have a separate procedure: a notice in free form and a possible exemption from tax audits for the periods concerned.

On 6 July 2026 the Dnipropetrovsk regional office of the State Tax Service (STS) reminded taxpayers of both procedures. For NGOs the issue is twofold: besides the STS, the donor and the project auditor will also ask for the documents. Below we explain what the Tax Code says, what to file and how to keep evidence of expenses for the donor.

What has changed

The rules are not new; the STS summarised them in one clarification: STS Main Office in Dnipropetrovsk region. We checked it against the current Tax Code on zakon.rada.gov.ua.

General procedure (paragraph 44.5 of the Tax Code). If documents are lost, damaged or destroyed early, the taxpayer notifies its tax office in writing within five days of the event. The notice is filed in the same way as tax returns, together with documents confirming the event. The documents must be restored within 90 calendar days from the day after the notice is received. If the notice was filed on time and an audit cannot be carried out because of the loss, the audit is postponed until the documents are restored, but for no more than 120 days. Audits under Article 200 of the Tax Code are an exception.

If the documents are not restored. If they are not restored, or are lost again after the right to restore them has been used, they are treated as not having existed when the reports were prepared. The same applies when documents are not produced to the inspectors during an audit (paragraph 44.6), except where they were seized by law enforcement.

Hostilities and occupied territories (subparagraph 69.28, subsection 10, section XX of the Tax Code). A taxpayer that operated in areas of active hostilities or in temporarily occupied territories and cannot produce primary documents files a free-form notice signed by the director and the chief accountant. It states the circumstances, the tax periods and a general list of documents, with details where possible. Reported figures for these periods cannot be challenged solely because primary documents are missing. Once a notice of loss is filed, the organisation is not subject to audit for those periods, including after martial law ends.

Who is affected

• NGOs and companies whose documents were damaged by shelling, fire, flooding or another event;
• organisations whose office, warehouse or archive was in an area of hostilities or in a temporarily occupied territory;
• grant-funded NGOs that kept original acts, delivery notes and payment lists in one place;
• organisations whose documents disappeared together with a former accountant or director.

What to do and by when

1. On the day of the event, draw up an internal act: what happened, which documents were affected, for which periods. Keep evidence of the event: certificates from the State Emergency Service, police or local authority, photos.
2. Within 5 days, file a written notice with the tax office together with copies of the evidence. If the organisation operated in an area of hostilities or an occupied territory, assess whether subparagraph 69.28 applies and file a free-form notice.
3. Within 90 calendar days, restore the documents: request copies from counterparties, the bank and the donor, rebuild registers from the accounting software and electronic tax accounts.
4. Legal entities should carry out a stocktake as at the 1st day of the month following the month in which access to assets, primary documents and registers was restored, and record the results in that period. The STS points this out separately.
5. Inform the donor in writing if grant project documents were affected, and agree which evidence can support the expenses.

Common mistakes and risks

• Missing the 5 days. The postponement of an audit for up to 120 days only works if the notice is filed in line with paragraph 44.5.
• Notified but never restored. After 90 days without restoration the documents are treated as missing, which puts expenses and reported figures at risk.
• Using subparagraph 69.28 without a link to hostilities. A loss unrelated to hostilities or occupation gives no such right. A taxpayer that applies the procedure without grounds is treated as evading tax.
• Forgetting the donor. The tax rule does not oblige a donor to accept expenses without documents. The grant agreement sets how expenses are evidenced.
• A single original and no copies. Without scans or electronic copies, restoration takes long and is not always possible.

What the auditor and the donor will check

A project auditor checks whether each expense is supported by documents. Where originals are missing, we look at the notice to the tax office, the act on the event, restored copies, bank statements and confirmations from counterparties. Without sufficient evidence the auditor cannot verify an expense, and the donor may treat it as ineligible. So restoring documents and corresponding with the donor should run in parallel with the tax steps.

FAQ

How we help

We restore accounting records for periods where documents were lost, help prepare the notice to the tax office and collect alternative evidence for the donor. See accounting recovery for NGOs, accounting recovery and grant audit. For NGO accountants we run free webinars for NGOs.

Prepared by the MK Audit team