Hetmantsev: the growth in the number of individual entrepreneurs is not an "economic miracle" but a consequence of business fragmentation

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 201,356 new individual entrepreneurs have registered in Ukraine, despite the massive closure of dormant sole proprietorships due to new tax rules in early 2025. This was reported to by the head of the Verkhovna Rada's Financial Committee Danylo Hetmantsev .

In the first eight months of 2025, the number of registered individual entrepreneurs increased by 65,616. This is happening against the backdrop of the massive closure of dormant entrepreneurs of the first and second groups earlier this year due to the restoration of pre-war unified social security tax rules and the introduction of a mandatory military fee of UAH 800 per month.

"The growth in the number of registered individual entrepreneurs is not a sign of an economic miracle. Changes in this quantitative indicator do not indicate a weakening or strengthening of economic processes in the country," emphasized Hetmantsev .

He reminded that the simplified taxation system was created to support small businesses, but in reality it is widely used for tax evasion by splitting large businesses into individual entrepreneurs.

"Retail, restaurants, hotels and other sectors – we see large companies artificially registering dozens of "entrepreneurs" to pay less to the state budget. Even during the war, when almost every penny goes to the army," said the Chairman of the Financial Committee.

• on July 17, Opendatabot reported that the number of "one-day businesses" in Ukraine has increased by more than 5,400% in four years: in 2025, registered more than 5,300 sole proprietorships that closed in less than two weeks.
• On October 3, learned that in the first nine months of 2025, more than 45,000 sole proprietorships opened in 2024 closed in Ukraine.