The law of Ukraine defines the date of the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea as a legal fact

On October 9, 2015, the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Determining the Date of the Beginning of the Temporary Occupation" came into force.

According to this Law, Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Citizens and the Legal Regime in the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine" was supplemented with a provision according to which the date of the beginning of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol is recognized as February 20, 2014.

The provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Establishment of the Free Economic Zone "Crimea" and Peculiarities of Economic Activity in the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine" were also harmonized with this provision. In addition, Article 12 of the said Law has been amended to provide that financial and penalties for violation of the requirements of the procedure for filing, calculation, correctness of tax returns (tax reporting) and full payment of taxes and fees shall not be applied to taxpayers who, as of the beginning of the temporary occupation, were located in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, starting from March 1, 2014.

The current legislation links the date of the beginning of the temporary occupation as a legal fact to the change and termination of certain rights and obligations. Thus, the Law of Ukraine "On the Creation of the Free Economic Zone "Crimea" and Peculiarities of Economic Activity in the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine" provides that from the date of the beginning of the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, taxpayers registered in the temporarily occupied territory are exempt from the obligation to file tax returns and other tax reporting, and from that date, payers of the unified social tax are exempt from the obligation to pay this tax.

In addition, the Law preserves the right of private, state and municipal ownership of objects located in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine at the beginning of the temporary occupation.

For practical issues related to the exercise of their rights, IDPs can contact the partners of the project "New Challenges in Legal Support and Protection of Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Ukraine", which is implemented by the All-Ukrainian Coalition forLegal Aid with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Volyn, Dnipropetrovs'k, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Rivne, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky and Chernihiv regions.