Appellate court cancels 3 million hryvnia tax assessment against OnlyFans creator due to tax authority error

The Fifth Appellate Administrative Court issued a ruling in favour of Oksana Serhiivna Danilova, who publishes content on the OnlyFans platform. The court overturned the first-instance decision and granted the plaintiff's claim, annulling the tax notification-decisions and the demand for debt recovery totalling approximately 3 million hryvnia.

Source of information and case number

Information about the court proceedings was published with reference to the materials of case No. 420/2206/26.

Start of the conflict: data from the United Kingdom

The incident began after the State Tax Service of Ukraine received data from competent authorities of the United Kingdom regarding the income of Ukrainian residents from Fenix International Ltd (the owner of OnlyFans) for the period 2020–2022.

According to the case materials, in 2022 Oksana Danilova received 334,256 US dollars from the platform, which amounted to over 12.2 million hryvnia at the National Bank exchange rate. Since a tax declaration had not been filed, the Main Directorate of the State Tax Service in Odesa Oblast appointed and conducted a documentary, unscheduled, non-visit audit.

As a result, the tax authorities assessed additional personal income tax, military levy, and applied penalty sanctions totalling over 2.98 million hryvnia. Meanwhile, a critical error occurred when sending requests, the audit order, and the tax notification-decisions themselves: all documents were sent to the old registered address, from which the plaintiff had deregistered back in 2020.

Procedural violations as grounds for cancellation

Although the first-instance court supported the tax authorities' position, the appellate instance identified significant violations of procedural norms:

• Access to current data: The State Migration Service transmits information to the State Tax Service monthly regarding changes in citizens' places of residence. The tax authorities had the opportunity to learn about the plaintiff's new registration (since November 2023) but did not verify the currency of the address.
• Illegality of the audit: Failure to send the audit notification to the proper address constitutes a material violation of paragraph 79.2 of Article 79 of the Tax Code of Ukraine. In accordance with the legal position of the Supreme Court, this is an independent ground for cancelling decisions made as a result of such an audit.
• Absence of a reconciled debt: Since the decisions were not properly served, the monetary obligation formally did not arise. Therefore, the tax demand dated 21 May 2025 was premature.

Operative part of the court decision

On 15 September 2026, the Fifth Appellate Administrative Court ruled:

• To cancel the decision of the Odesa District Administrative Court dated 1 June 2026.
• To recognise as unlawful and cancel five tax notification-decisions of the State Tax Service dated 24 March 2025, as well as the tax demand dated 21 May 2025.
• To recover 24,960 hryvnia in court fees from the Main Directorate of the State Tax Service in Odesa Oblast in favour of Oksana Serhiivna Danilova.