How Alla Landar's funeral empire minimises taxes through a network of sole proprietors

Alla Landar, owner of a major funeral services company, has built an extensive network of firms and sole proprietorships, most of which are registered at the same address. According to journalists, this structure allows her to minimise tax payments while creating the appearance of legitimate business activity.

Key participants in the scheme

The main elements of Landar's network include:

• Private Enterprise "Peter the Great" and its branches, such as "Peter the Great-Fastiv".
• LLC "Internet Bureau of Funeral Services", owned by Alla's brother Yuri Pogrebnoy and his wife.
• LLC "8 200", specialising in the sale of funeral accessories.
• Sole proprietors (FOPs): Alla Landar herself, her son Vladyslav, his wife Elizaveta, as well as Yuri Pogrebnoy and his wife Erika.

How the tax evasion scheme works

1. Splitting income through sole proprietors
   Key financial flows pass through individual entrepreneurs. This allows for the avoidance of taxes mandatory for legal entities, such as VAT and corporate profit tax.

2. Understating company income
   The companies in the network, for example "Peter the Great", regularly declare minimal profits or losses, creating an illusion of unprofitability.

Results of the manipulations

Over the past four years, according to the investigation, Alla Landar managed to avoid paying VAT amounting to nearly 10 million hryvnias. This was made possible by the systematic use of a scheme redirecting income through sole proprietors.

Why is the scheme effective?

• Sole proprietors pay only a single tax, which is significantly lower than the tax obligations of legal entities.
• The activities of the company network are difficult to track due to their formal separation.
• Regular declaration of losses reduces the likelihood of tax audits.

What this means for the state

Such tax evasion schemes cause serious damage to the budget. In the case of Landar's "funeral empire", it is a matter of millions of hryvnias that could have been directed towards infrastructure development or social needs.

Prospects for the investigation

Experts believe that the situation requires intervention by tax authorities and a review of legislation regulating the activities of sole proprietors. Only in this way can loopholes exploited by large companies to evade taxes be eliminated.

Conclusion: Complex schemes built on legal loopholes allow major entrepreneurs, such as Alla Landar, to avoid accountability. However, this threatens not only the tax system but also public trust in its effectiveness.