Almost UAH 3.5 billion of taxes and fees were paid by WOG only for the 1st quarter of 2024.
Work openly, report publicly – this is exactly the principle followed by the WOG filling station network. In total, for the first quarter of 2024, the company transferred UAH 3.477 billion to the budgets of all levels. Of them, 470.9 million are taxes on operational activities* and UAH 3.006 billion are taxes on import.
Taxes from operating activities in comparison with the 1st quarter of 2023 increased by 81.6%. Such growth was achieved despite the fact that 17 gas stations, which make up 5% of the network, are currently out of service due to destruction or damage due to hostilities or ended up to be located at the temporarily occupied territories.
If we translate the indicated amount of taxes paid, then for every litre of fuel sold in the WOG network, UAH 1.91 of operating taxes were paid.
“The WOG filling station network and fuel retail business in general set a certain trend by publicly reporting on paid taxes for the past 3-4 years. While only a few companies supported this approach before, on February 24, 2022, this changed fundamentally. These days, the principles of openness, transparency and publicity in paying taxes for the benefit of the state have already become a trend. Business understands how important it is to pay taxes to the budget of our country today, so that tomorrow it does not have to be paid to the budget of the aggressor country,” Mykola Tsyrkun, financial director of the WOG filling station network, emphasized.
The issue of taxes has ceased to be a dialogue between the government and business; today, almost every consumer, choosing this or that network, pays attention to the civic position of the business: what taxes it pays, whether it pays a “voluntary tax” – that is whether it finances initiatives aimed at supporting the Defence Forces. The “friend-or-foe” principle has become almost more important than the recognition of the network's brand. The “friend” category includes responsible businesses that not only declare state support, but also back it up with actual millions and billions of hryvnias directed to the budget.
“For us, as for many Ukrainian businesses, the “voluntary tax” has become extra, but no less mandatory. And it's not just money, because the business takes on not only the calculation issue, but rather the actual administration of such a tax: communication with foundation and military units, determination of needs, purchase and targeted transfer to the army of what the defenders need. Now, one charity project follows another, and the aid is measured in dozens of UAVs and pickups, hundreds of FPV drones, thousands of first-aid kits, hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel aimed at evacuating the wounded, millions of chemical heating pads”, Hennadii Karlinskyi, marketing director of the WOG filling station network, noted.
* Taxes on operating activities include income tax, VAT (except for import), retail excise tax, personal income tax, military levy, land tax, single social security tax.
