Discussing and signing documents at a desk

Make the business decisions before the application

Registration establishes sole proprietor status in Ukraine. Before completing the form, describe your intended goods or services, customer types and payment methods. This helps you choose activity codes and discuss tax arrangements with an appropriate adviser. Do not copy another business owner's tax choice without checking the conditions. Similar businesses may serve different customers or conduct different transactions. The registration officer handles registration; individual tax planning needs separate attention.

Select an application route

Diia offers an electronic registration service. Offline applications can be handled by authorised state registrars, including through participating CNAPs. Check that the particular branch accepts sole proprietor applications before travelling. The presence of a centre in a city does not mean every branch provides every registration function. For an online application, prepare access to your own account and an appropriate electronic signature. Representation or unusual applicant circumstances should be clarified before submission.

Prepare personal details and activity codes

Compare your details with your identity documents and check the tax number, address and contact information. Choose KVED economic activity codes that describe the planned work, including a considered choice of the main activity. Separately check whether the activity requires a licence, permit or further step after registration. Keep a working list for discussion, but review the actual application before signing: only the information entered into that form is submitted for registration.

Understand the tax selection

The applicable application process allows the relevant tax system choice to be indicated. Check that the form reflects your decision and that you understand when the selected arrangement takes effect. Clarify restrictions, reporting and customer payment requirements before submitting. There is no single suitable tax group for every new business. This guide does not recommend a rate or group from a brief business description; the decision requires the actual circumstances and current rules.

Submit and verify the outcome

Read the address, contact information and activity codes carefully. After submission, save the acknowledgement and track the official status. A draft, a submitted request and a completed registration are separate stages. When available, compare the register entry and the resulting extract with the application. If there is a problem, establish its cause and make the necessary correction rather than sending repeated identical requests. Do not share your account password, signature key or verification codes with someone promising faster processing.

Arrange the next business steps

After registration, check the tax records and make a separate plan for accounting, a business account, payment handling and any necessary permits. Registration does not automatically settle every operational requirement. Keep the extract and official notifications together, with questions for the tax authority or a qualified adviser. Use CNAPMAP to find a verified sole proprietor registration service and confirm registrar hours. The directory does not register a business or ask to receive your electronic signature.

How Ukraine’s first, second and third tax groups differ

The first group is for sole traders with no employees who retail from trading places at markets and/or provide household services to individuals. The second covers permitted services to individuals and single-tax payers, goods production and sales, and restaurant activities, with no more than 10 employees at a time. The third does not impose that employee limit. Each group has restrictions on activities and annual income.

Income ceilings are multiples of the statutory minimum wage on 1 January of the relevant year: 167 for group one, 834 for group two and 1,167 for group three. Figures in 2021–2023 instructions are therefore not current ceilings. Check Tax Code article 291 and the calculation for the relevant year. In particular, the second group’s restrictions on customers for services must not be applied indiscriminately to goods sales.

When the chosen tax regime starts

A newly registered sole trader choosing group one or two must submit the tax election by the end of the month of business registration. Single-tax status starts on the first day of the following month. For group three without VAT, an election within 10 calendar days of business registration gives status from the registration date. Income received before the elected regime begins is not automatically single-tax income.

The third group’s basic single-tax options are 5% of income without separate VAT or 3% with VAT. The VAT option has additional requirements. Check the military levy and unified social contribution separately: neither 5% nor 3% represents every compulsory payment. Ask the State Tax Service about the rules and exemptions applicable to your situation.

Automatic registration through Diia

Use the official automatic registration service, sign in, complete your details, activity codes and tax election, and sign with your own electronic signature. Diia submits the application to the business register automatically without a state registrar and passes the tax information under the procedure. Check your account notification, the register entry and, separately, the effective date of single-tax registration. FOP registration is free; a bank account, licence and cash-register obligations are separate matters.

Foreign citizenship alone does not prevent registration as a Ukrainian sole trader. For an in-person application, check the appropriate identity document, Ukrainian tax number and lawful stay; translation and representation requirements depend on the documents. Tax residence is a separate question. Non-resident individuals cannot use the ordinary first–third groups; electronic residents have a special regime. A residence permit alone does not establish eligibility for the selected tax group.

Use the separate guide to closing a FOP when ending business activity. Business registration does not register your home address.

FOP, “SPD” and a private company

A search for “SPD registration” or a “private entrepreneur” first requires identifying whether the applicant is an individual sole trader. A private enterprise registered as a legal entity follows a different procedure. Do not use a FOP application for a company.

The 2021–2023 rules in context

Diia’s automatic FOP registration was presented on 17 May 2021. Following an interruption at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, online business registration resumed on 28 March 2022. These dates explain archived availability notices; they are not a statement about today’s service uptime.

The ordinary second-group annual income ceiling was UAH 5,004,000 in 2021, UAH 5,421,000 in 2022 and UAH 5,587,800 in 2023. The first- and second-group start on the following month’s first day also applied in 2021. Check the rules for the actual reporting period when reviewing historical activity.

A separate third-group 2% wartime regime operated from 1 April 2022. It was abolished from 1 August 2023, with statutory return or transition rules; newly registered businesses that had selected 2% from the outset transitioned to 5% from 1 August 2023. This regime cannot be selected for a new registration in 2026.

Separately, from 1 January 2022 cash-register obligations expanded for groups two–four carrying out settlement operations. Statutory exceptions remained, including settlement books in specified rural-trading cases. Cash registers were registered with the tax service separately from the FOP entry. A historical assessment requires the payment method, activity and transaction date.

Third-group sole traders and VAT registration

The 3% unified-tax rate is linked to paying VAT; the 5% rate includes VAT within the unified tax under the applicable rules. An EDR sole-trader entry does not itself establish VAT registration.

For an existing third-group taxpayer switching from 5% to 3%, the 25 August 2026 tax-authority guidance requires the rate-change application at least 10 calendar days before the next quarter, together with the VAT-registration application. This is a specific case, not the universal deadline for all voluntary registrations.

The State Tax Service’s instructions identify application 1-PDV, electronic form J/F1310111, submitted to the tax authority through the Electronic Cabinet or another permitted channel with the appropriate electronic signature. Specify the ground and planned date, match EDR details and retain the acknowledgement. The law also provides for expressing a wish for voluntary VAT registration in the relevant business-registration application, with data transferred to the tax authority; check actual support in the selected electronic service.

The tax authority describes three working days for consideration. Registered status runs from the date entered in the VAT register, not merely from sending the form. Check both VAT registration and the unified-tax record separately.

Changing an existing sole trader’s name

Do not create a second sole trader merely because your surname changed. Diia’s sole-trader amendments service updates names, location, business activities and contacts for an existing registration. Prepare current details, sign in, choose the changes, check the form and sign using Diia.Signature or the prescribed electronic signature.

Tax-number or passport-detail changes are different from a name amendment: the current card directs those changes to offline CNAP submission. Contact/activity updates and name/address amendments have different fee conditions. Check the current administrative fee before paying.

Retain the Diia result and verify the EDR record. Unified-tax payers should also check the tax authority’s processing in its Electronic Cabinet. Automatic data transmission does not establish that every tax-record change has been approved.

Registering an entrepreneur away from the registered home address in 2021–2022

Law 755-IV as applicable on 31 December 2021, Article 4(2), expressly allowed individual entrepreneur registration using paper or electronic documents regardless of location. The neighbouring paragraph’s regional limit on paper registration concerned legal entities and public formations; it should not be transferred automatically to individual entrepreneurs. Choosing a filing office did not itself change the entrepreneur’s EDR address or tax address.

For 2022, also consider the date and wartime access rules. The Justice Ministry’s Government Portal explanation of Resolution 209 of 6 March 2022 described registration regardless of location unless the approved list imposed territorial restrictions. Permission to apply away from the registered home address therefore did not mean every CNAP or registrar had EDR access and could perform every action on every day of 2022. A historical dispute requires the rules and registrar’s authority for the relevant date.

Foreign nationals registering as entrepreneurs in 2021

Foreign nationality did not itself rule out Ukrainian entrepreneur registration. Article 14 of that version of Law 755-IV provided for a foreign national’s national, diplomatic or service passport, or another appropriate identity document; a representative also had to establish authority. Article 18 specified the application and additional documents for prescribed cases, while Article 9 covered citizenship, tax-number and contact-address information. Documents had to meet the law’s language and other requirements. Entrepreneur registration was not immigration permission or a guarantee of a fully remote application from abroad.

The Tax Service’s explanation of 28 August 2021 separately addressed simplified taxation for properly registered foreign entrepreneurs meeting the tax criteria. Registration and the choice of tax regime are separate checks. New applications follow current rules rather than a 2021 checklist.

Registering RRO and PRRO cash registers in 2022

The Tax Service's 24 January 2022 explanation distinguished hardware RRO from software PRRO. Hardware registration used application 1-RRO to the tax authority, followed by the prescribed fiscal-number reservation and commissioning through a service centre. Registering a sole proprietorship did not automatically register its cash register.

The official 2022 Tax Service leaflet described choosing PRRO software, obtaining the responsible person's qualified signature, notifying the business unit on 20-OPP and filing 1-PRRO electronically through the taxpayer account or an authorised channel. Cashier-certificate registration, product setup and opening a shift were further steps. This is a dated historical procedure, not confirmation that old electronic-form identifiers remain current in 2026. Whether a trader had to use a register and how to register it are separate checks; establish the date and transactions for an old case.

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