How to declare income from shares in Ukraine and the EU

So, you bought some shares. Your broker withheld tax, the money arrived net, and that’s it, right? It’s usually not. Paying taxes and filing a declaration are two separate obligations in Ukraine, and the first doesn’t cancel the second. It may sound complicated, but it really isn’t. 

If you’re an EU tax resident

There’s no single EU-wide taxation rate. It depends on which country taxes you. Taxes differ for capital gains and dividends. Here are the numbers: 

• Highest: Denmark 42%, Netherlands 36%, France 34%, Finland 34%, Ireland 33%
• Middle: Spain and Sweden 30%, Austria 27.5%, Germany 26.4%, Italy 26%, Estonia 22%, Lithuania 20%, Poland 19%
• Lowest: Hungary 15%, Croatia 12%, Belgium and Bulgaria 10%, Romania 1%
• Zero on long-held listed shares: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia

Most tax the gain when you sell. Then, you realise a profit, and pay a percentage of it. And that’s it. 

But some exempt you after a holding period. For example, Slovakia after one year and Czechia after three years for joint-stock companies. 

There are countries that don’t tax sales at all, and the Netherlands is one of those. It taxes a deemed annual return on your portfolio’s value at 36%, above a tax-free threshold of €59,357 per person. There’s a downside to this system: you can owe tax in a year you sold nothing, and even in a year you lost money.

Two more things that vary between countries:

• Annual exemptions. Ireland exempts the first €1,270 of gains per year. Belgium, which only started taxing share sales in 2026, exempts the first €10,000 and allows part of the unused allowance to carry forward for up to five years.
• Loss carry-forward. Some countries allow losses to be carried forward indefinitely, while others cap the number of years or the amount per year. 

Don’t forget that dividends are taxed separately, at their own rates, which don’t match capital gains rates. Romania raised its dividend rate from 10% to 16% in 2026, Slovakia’s at 7%, and Spain’s at 30%.

So what do you even do? Find out which country you’re a tax resident in – usually where you spend most of the year, not where your passport is from. Then check these: the rate, if your broker withholds anything for you, and the filing deadline. These vary quite a bit among member states, so there’s no general advice here. 

Who has to file a declaration in Ukraine?

You’ll have to answer two questions first: do you owe tax, and do you have to file? Keep in mind:

• If you used a Ukrainian broker or bank. A professional securities trader acts as your tax agent, so it calculates and withholds personal income tax and the military levy each time investment profit arrives, and pays it to the budget for you. So you don’t have to do anything, right? Well, not really. You are still required to determine the financial result of those transactions in your annual declaration and file it. It is a hard requirement. There is no Ukrainian tax agent anywhere in the chain. That means nothing is withheld or reported automatically. So you have to declare, calculate, and file everything yourself. We’ve written separately about how to invest abroad without running into blocks.
• You have to file even if you made no profit. If your sale happened at a loss or broke even, there’s nothing to tax there. But you still have an obligation to file it. Because the requirement attaches to having income from transactions in investment assets, not to if you had any profit. Filing a loss year also preserves the loss for future offset.
• If you used a foreign broker. Ukrainian tax agent isn’t even in the money chain in this scenario. That means nothing is withheld or reported automatically. So you have to declare, calculate, and file everything yourself.

Who can skip it? Usually, someone whose income all came from Ukrainian tax agents, for example, a salary. So there are no investment transactions and no foreign income. But if there are shares or foreign income somewhere, this stops applying. 

There are also a few exemptions written into the Tax Code. For example, income from shares received through privatisation and investment profit from NBU debt instruments are neither taxed nor declared.

Tax on dividends from foreign shares

Tax on dividends happens twice. First, where the company is, and then where you are. No one asks anyone anything, it just happens. Understanding this is worth the time. 

The Ukrainian rate

Dividends from foreign companies are taxed in Ukraine at 9% personal income tax plus a 5% military levy, for a total of 14%. It applies even if the company’s home country has already taxed you. 

The rate depends on who paid the dividend:

• 5% – dividends from a Ukrainian company that pays corporate income tax. Plus the 5% levy, for a total of 10%.
• 9% – dividends accrued by non-residents, collective investment institutions, and businesses that aren’t corporate income tax payers. 14% in total, with a levy tax. 
• 18% – dividends on preferred shares and similar fixed-payment corporate rights, which the Tax Code equates to salary for tax purposes. 23% with a levy tax.

So if you live in Ukraine and hold both domestic blue-chip and foreign shares, you pay different tax rate on dividends from these two sources. 

Do not forget that dividends from foreign shares do not interact with the Ukrainian tax agent, so you must calculate, declare, and pay 14% tax yourself. Also, a military levy tax of 5% is applied in every case regardless, and is not reduced by any tax already paid abroad – it’s applied on top as is. 

Withholding tax in the source country

Before any dividends reach you, the company’s home takes its share. This happens automatically.

Let’s take the USA, for example. The statutory rate for non-residents is 30%, but a valid W-8BEN lowers it to the Ukraine-USA tax treaty rate – 15% for Ukrainian residents. Your broker collects the form and applies the reduction for you.

In Europe, the rates vary a lot. Just a few examples:

• Switzerland – 35%
• Germany – 26.375% (25% plus a solidarity surcharge)
• France – 30%

In Europe, the reduced treaty rate usually isn’t applied upfront. For example, a company from Germany pays you a dividend. Germany takes its share of 26.375% right away, even if there’s a treaty and the rate should be, say, 15%. Nobody lowers the rate for you. To get the overpaid amount back, you must file a refund claim with the German tax office yourself, and you have 4 years from the date you paid the tax to do so. 

Reclaims also need a certificate of tax residence from your own tax office. And your exact treaty rate depends on the treaty between your country and the source country. The most common rate between countries is 15%, but it’s not universal, so be sure to check it out yourself.

Avoiding double taxation

If the dividend source country has taxed you and there is a treaty between this country and Ukraine, you can avoid double taxation. The treaty lets you subtract what you paid abroad from what you owe in Ukraine.

But the subtraction can’t exceed the Ukrainian tax due. If a foreign country took more than Ukraine would have, you don’t get the excess back – you just can’t use it.

Sounds complicated? Let’s look at a tax on dividends from foreign companies in an example. You receive a $100 dividend from a US company:

• The US withholds 15%, so $85 reaches you
• Ukraine charges 9% PIT on the $100, which is $9
• You paid $15 abroad, more than the $9 owed here, so your Ukrainian PIT drops to zero
• The extra $6 is simply lost with no refund

The military levy isn’t covered by any treaty. That 5% – $5 in this example – is payable in Ukraine regardless of anything. So the real cost of that $100 dividend is $20, not the 14% you’d calculate from just Ukrainian rates.

But the credit only works if you have a certificate from the foreign tax authority confirming the tax paid. Without it, you owe the full Ukrainian amount on top of the foreign withholding. 

Tax on capital gains from selling shares

Ukraine keeps capital gains tax on stocks much simpler than most other countries. There’s no long-term versus short-term distinction, no brackets, no lower rate for holding longer. Whether you sell after a week or after ten years, the rate is the same.

Tax depends on sales, not on growth. So you bought a share, paid your taxes, and it doubled in value – you owe nothing on that growth. 

Each sale is counted separately, then everything is added up. For one sale, your profit is what you received minus what you paid. Do that for every sale in the year, add the profits and subtract the losses, and you get one number. If it’s positive, that’s what you’re taxed on. If it’s negative, you owe nothing.

Sounds complicated? Here’s an example. When you sell one share at a €500 profit and another at a €300 loss, you’re taxed on €200, not €500.

If the year’s total comes out negative, that loss doesn’t disappear. You carry it into the next year and subtract it from that year’s profit. If it’s still not used up, it keeps being available until it is. There’s no deadline on this. Which is why filing in a loss year is a very good idea. 

A useful tip: keep these records yourself, separately from all your other income and expenses. Your broker’s statement is the first thing you get and one of the most important ones.

Appendix Ф1 and how investment profit is calculated

Investment profit is reported in Appendix Ф1 (the Ukrainian form’s designation), which is in line 10.8 of the declaration. In the table in this appendix, you list separately what you sold, received, what it cost you, and the result. You must keep in mind 4 things:

• Converting foreign currency. If you own shares in a foreign company, your investment profit is converted into hryvnia at the NBU rate on the date of the sale. 
• Documenting it. If you trade digitally, the broker’s report is the recognised primary document. It’s built from the exchange report and your brokerage agreement. Keep it all. 
• Last year’s losses. Ф1 has a separate line for carrying forward a previous year’s loss, which is where you see a declared loss. Be sure to fill it out if it applies to you. 
• Filing a loss year is important. The loss only exists on the tax office’s records if you declared it. If you don’t declare it, there’s nothing to carry into the next year. 

Deadlines and the postponement 

You should keep in mind three dates:

• 1 May – the filing deadline for the previous year’s income
• 1 August – the payment deadline for whatever you declared
• 31 December – the deadline if you’re filing voluntarily to claim a tax rebate.

If you don’t have the supporting documents from the foreign jurisdiction (that you received income and paid taxes abroad), the Tax Code doesn’t expect you to guess. You submit an application to move your filing deadline to 31 December of the year following the reporting year.

Keep in mind:

• You MUST do this. If any documents are missing, the Code requires you to file the application.
• Application on 1 May. You submit it to your tax office by the original deadline. Be sure not to miss it. 

How to file, step by step

There are three ways to submit your declaration:

• Online through the Електронний кабінет (Digital Office) – the easiest method
• In person at your tax office, or through someone you authorise
• By post with acknowledgment of receipt and a list of what’s inside, sent at least five days before the deadline

Here’s a bit more detailed instruction if you choose to do it online:

1. Get an electronic signature (КЕП). Any accredited provider issues one. Or use Дія.Підпис.
2. Log in at tax.gov.ua and check that your details are right.
3. Request your income extract. It arrives in a few minutes and fills in part of the form for you.
4. Open “ЕК для громадян” then “Податкова декларація” and start the declaration.
5. Add your appendices. Ф1 for investment profit. And don’t forget that foreign dividends go on the foreign income line instead.
6. Attach your documents. You can upload copies alongside the declaration, such as broker reports, foreign tax certificates, and translations.
7. Check it, sign with your КЕП, and send. That’s it! 

Declaring income from foreign shares

If you’re receiving foreign income, it complicates things a bit. Keep in mind these: 

• Currency conversion. Everything is declared in hryvnia, converted at the NBU rate on the day the income was received. You do this yourself.
• You need more than just a broker statement. It proves that you traded, but it doesn’t prove that you paid tax abroad. For the credit, you need a certificate from the foreign tax authority showing the tax paid and what it was charged on. Without it, you pay the full Ukrainian amount in addition to what was already withheld.
• You need to legalise the certificate. It usually includes an apostille from the issuing country, plus a notarised Ukrainian translation. A few countries are exempt – Moldova, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Hungary – where the translation alone is enough.

And a bit of info specifically about Interactive Brokers, since it’s one of the more popular brokers. In April 2026, ДПС (Ukraine’s tax authority) issued a consultation aimed directly at Ukrainians holding foreign securities there. Long story short, the income is taxable, a declaration is required, and foreign tax can be credited against your Ukrainian income tax. If you’re interested in knowing more about Interactive Brokers, you can do it here. 

US dividends and Interactive Brokers

Your broker gives you Form 1042-S at the end of the first quarter. It shows your US income and the tax withheld. Form 1042-S is issued by your broker, not by a state authority empowered to collect tax. On that basis, the ДПС (Ukraine’s tax authority) says it doesn’t qualify as a document giving the right to credit foreign tax in Ukraine.

Instead, you need:

• A transcript from the IRS – an official extract of your tax data, which the IRS issues on request
• That transcript apostilled by the competent US authority
• A notarised Ukrainian translation of it
• Plus a copy of Form 1042-S, also with a notarised translation

1042-S isn’t useless, but it isn’t sufficient on its own. Also, be sure to remember about deadlines. Requesting an IRS transcript, getting it apostilled, and having it translated can easily take weeks, or even months.