Court cancels over 1 million hryvnia in fines against owner of Yabluka chain

Court verdict in favour of the entrepreneur

The Kyiv District Administrative Court issued a ruling fully satisfying the claim of sole proprietor Serhiy Anatoliyovych Malish. The court cancelled the tax notification decisions issued by the Main Directorate of the State Tax Service in Kyiv Oblast, which provided for the application of financial sanctions totalling over 1.009 million hryvnia. The corresponding decision was made on 11 September 2026.

In addition to cancelling the fines, the court ordered the recovery of 10,097.34 hryvnia in court fees in favour of the entrepreneur, to be paid from the budgetary allocations of the tax authority. The hearing of case No. 320/20712/25 concluded with a complete victory for the plaintiff.

Circumstances of the inspection

The conflict arose during a physical inspection of a Yabluka store located in one of Kyiv's shopping and entertainment centres. State Tax Service inspectors conducted a control cash transaction by purchasing an Apple cable worth 599 hryvnia. Following this, the tax authority demanded that primary documents for the goods be provided directly at the point of sale.

Based on these actions, tax auditors drew up an inventory of property and on 7 October 2024 issued two tax notification decisions regarding sole proprietor S.A. Malish:

• a fine of 1,007,694 hryvnia for the alleged sale and storage of unaccounted stock (Apple equipment) without documents confirming its origin;
• a fine of 2,040 hryvnia for failing to provide documents upon the auditors' request, applied in double amount due to an alleged repeat violation within a year.

Violations by the tax authority

Analysing the case materials, the court agreed with the entrepreneur's arguments and identified a number of fundamental violations by the State Tax Service, which served as grounds for cancelling the fines:

• Lack of legal basis for the inspection. The inspection order was issued on the basis of sub-paragraph 80.2.3 of paragraph 80.2 of Article 80 of the Tax Code of Ukraine (written appeal by a buyer). However, the tax authority did not provide the court with the consumer's appeal itself or the report note it referenced. In the absence of a real legal fact, the tax authority had no right to appoint an inspection.
• Inadmissibility of the inspection act as evidence. The tax authority cannot, after the completion of an inspection, replace the chosen basis with general control and supervisory functions. Since the inspection was initiated without legal grounds, its act loses the property of admissible evidence.
• Defects in the order and taxpayer identification. The annex to the order contained only the name of the Yabluka store and its address, but did not include the entrepreneur's full name and Unified State Register Code (RNOKPP) (S.A. Malish). Discrepancies were also found between the inspection start date specified in the order and the date of its actual conduct.
• Unrealistic document requirements. Auditors demanded that documents be provided within 20 minutes by a seller who was not a sole proprietor and had no access to such documents. This made it impossible to fulfil the request and refutes the fact of the taxpayer's culpable failure to provide documents.
• Failure to prove ownership of goods. The one-sided inventory of goods drawn up by the auditors, which lacked photo or video fixation and serial numbers of the Apple equipment, does not prove that all property found in the premises belonged specifically to sole proprietor S.A. Malish.
• Groundless double fine. The tax authority provided no evidence that a fine for a similar violation had previously been applied to the entrepreneur within a year.