Taxes on buying and selling property in Ukraine: who pays what

If you are buying in the Carpathians from abroad, taxes are the part of the deal that is easiest to get wrong and hardest to fix late. Nothing here is complicated — but almost every figure depends on facts you establish months earlier: when the seller acquired the property, how they acquired it, how many sales they have already made this year, and whether either party is a Ukrainian tax resident. Get those four facts on paper first, and the rest is arithmetic.

This article covers private individuals selling and buying their own property, not developers or registered entrepreneurs, and deals certified by a notary — the notary is the checkpoint where payment is verified before the contract is signed.

Residency decides more than the rate does

We start here because for an international reader it is the single most consequential question, and because it is decided by law, not by choice. Ukrainian tax residency is not determined by citizenship. A Ukrainian passport holder who has lived in Warsaw for a decade and a Canadian citizen whose family lives in Kosiv can easily end up on opposite sides of this line.

1. First test: do you have a place of residence in Ukraine? If you also have one abroad, the test moves to your permanent home.
2. If you have a permanent home in both countries, the deciding factor is your centre of vital interests — where your family and economic ties are. The law names the permanent residence of family members, or registration as a sole trader, as a sufficient (though not exclusive) indicator.
3. If the centre of vital interests cannot be determined, days are counted: 183 days in Ukraine during the tax year, including the day of arrival and the day of departure.
4. Only if none of the above settles the question does Ukrainian citizenship come into play.

A non-resident selling Ukrainian property is taxed under the same procedure as a resident, but at 18% rather than 5%, plus the 5% military levy. Settle your status before the deal: the seller pays the tax before the contract is notarised, and the notary will only certify it once payment is documented.

Who pays what on the day

The charges do not split down the middle. Each one is assigned by law to a specific side, and only stamp duty is left to negotiation. The item foreign buyers are most often unaware of is the pension charge — it lands on the buyer.

The military levy for individuals has been 5% since 1 December 2024; the older 1.5% figure still circulates in online guides. It is tied to income tax: income that is not taxed under Section IV of the Tax Code is also exempt from the levy. A zero on a sale is therefore a real zero, not a zero plus five per cent.

When the seller owes nothing

Once per reporting year, sale proceeds are not taxed at all, provided the property has been owned for more than three years. The three-year condition does not apply to inherited property — an inherited house can be sold tax-free the following month. This exemption covers a closed list of assets:

• a residential house, flat or part of one, a room, a garden or country house — including unfinished construction of such objects, the plot beneath them and the outbuildings on that plot;
• a land plot within the free-transfer limits set by Article 121 of the Land Code, according to its designated use;
• agricultural land received through privatisation, allotted in kind to the holder of a land share, or inherited.

The second and third sale in one year

The exemption applies once a year. After that the rate steps up — and the steps depend not on the size of the deal but on how many sales you have made and whether the asset is on the list above.

Where the 18% rate applies, the taxable income can be reduced by documented acquisition costs for property located in Ukraine: the price under the purchase or exchange contract, construction costs, and the registration fees and state duty paid on acquisition. Note one trap in that list — a property received as a gift is treated as acquired for the amount of duty, registration fees and taxes paid on the gift, which in practice is close to nothing.

The buyer's 1%, and the question worth asking early

The mandatory state pension insurance charge on property purchases is paid by the acquirer — the buyer — at 1% of the value stated in the contract. There is no way around it: the notary will not certify the contract without documentary proof that it has been paid.

Two exemptions exist: buyers who are on the official housing waiting list, and those buying housing for the first time. The second one is not automatic — it has to be claimed and evidenced to the notary before certification, not remembered a week later.

State duty for certifying a transfer contract is 1% of the contract sum, with a floor of one tax-free minimum income (UAH 17). The same rate applies to housing and to land, and at private notaries as well as state notarial offices. The law does not say which party pays it, so agree that in writing before you agree the price.

The price in the contract has a floor

Sale income is calculated from the contract price but not below the appraised value produced by the module of the Unified Database of Valuation Reports, or below the market value in an appraiser's report registered in that same database. Writing a lower number into the contract stopped working on property years ago: the notary verifies the certificate against the database before certifying and enters the contract price into it.

• The electronic valuation certificate is issued free of charge. Access to the database and data entry are free as well — you only pay if you go the appraiser route.
• The certificate is valid for 30 calendar days. Its issue date cannot be more than 30 days before the date the deal is concluded, so ordering it two months ahead achieves nothing.
• If you disagree with the module's figure you may instruct an appraiser, chosen through the State Register of Appraisers. The report must then be registered in the database within five working days of the date it was drawn up.
• A report is refused if the value falls outside the permitted 25% range for comparable objects set by the module. Agreeing a convenient number with an appraiser is not an available strategy.

In mountain villages this cuts both ways. The module builds its estimate from listings and previously registered contract prices, and a village of 300 households may produce two comparable deals in a year. The automatic figure can therefore sit well away from reality — which is exactly when a proper appraisal stops being a cost and becomes a tool. Budget for it: with registration, that is another week before the signing date. If you are buying through a representative, our guide to buying from abroad by power of attorney covers the procedural time this adds.

Inheritance and gifts

A gift from another individual is taxed under the same rules as an inheritance. Transferring property to a relative can genuinely be tax-free, but only within defined degrees of kinship — and the picture changes sharply the moment a non-resident is on either side.

Where the zero rate applies, the market value is not determined for tax purposes at all, so no valuation is needed. A non-resident heir, by contrast, faces a hard deadline: the tax must be paid before the inheritance is formalised by the notary.

What you pay every year afterwards

Once the deal closes, the recurring charges begin — and for an investment case these matter more than the one-off percentages, because they repeat annually and rise with the minimum wage.

Immovable property tax. The taxable area is reduced by 60 m² for a flat, 120 m² for a house, or 180 m² if you own both. The rate is set by the village, settlement or city council at up to 1.5% of the minimum wage as at 1 January of the reporting year, per square metre. The minimum wage on 1 January 2026 is UAH 8,647, so the ceiling for 2026 is UAH 129.71 per m² per year. Your community's actual rate may be far lower, and the only reliable way to learn it is the council's own decision.

Land tax. For plots with a normative monetary valuation, the rate does not exceed 3% of that valuation; agricultural land is between 0.3% and 1%; land in common use up to 1%; forest land up to 0.1%. Old-age pensioners, people with first- and second-group disability, war veterans, those affected by the Chornobyl disaster and people raising three or more children are exempt — but only within the size limits set for each use type: up to 2 ha for personal farming, 0.25 ha for a village house plot, 0.12 ha for gardening.

For individuals the tax authority calculates both taxes itself: assessment notices are sent by 1 July and payment is due within 60 days of service. If the notice is not served on time, the individual bears no liability for late payment.

Working out your own case

1. 1Pull the documents on the propertyYou need the date ownership was acquired, how it was acquired — purchase, inheritance or gift — and the area and land-use code from the cadastral extract. Those four facts determine the rate entirely.
2. 2Count the seller's sales this calendar yearNot the last twelve months — the reporting calendar year. A garage sold in March makes a September deal the second one, turning 0% into 5% plus 5%.
3. 3Settle residency in writingWork through the four tests in order and record the answer. If your situation is borderline, that is a question for a tax adviser before the deal, not after it.
4. 4Order the electronic valuation certificateIt is free and valid for 30 days. If the module's figure is clearly off the market, allow another week for an appraiser's report and its registration.
5. 5Write a two-column cost sheetSeller: income tax plus military levy. Buyer: the 1% pension charge. Separately: 1% state duty and the notary's fee, with an explicit agreement on who pays them. Five lines that prevent most signing-day arguments.
6. 6Check whether a return is neededIf tax was withheld at the deal and you are not claiming cost deductions, an annual return is usually unnecessary. If you are claiming them, the return is due by 1 May of the following year and the tax by 1 August.

We close deals in the Kosiv district every week, and the pattern is consistent: the problem is rarely the size of the tax, it is that someone calculated it late. The difference between 0% and 5% is often decided by the signing date rather than by negotiation. You can see what is currently available in our land and houses and cottages sections, and the case for buying here is set out on our investments page.