Private entrepreneur (ФОП) management for foreign companies

Ukrainian contractors, administered properly, without a company here

Engaging Ukrainian specialists as private entrepreneurs (ФОП) is the normal way for a foreign company to work here without incorporating. It is lawful, it is efficient, and it works, provided somebody is actually administering it. We register the ФОП, keep it compliant, calculate what has to be invoiced so the agreed amount actually arrives, and deal with the bank before an account gets frozen rather than afterwards.
Чому це йде не так

Most companies treat the ФОП as the contractor’s own problem

It is an understandable assumption. They are an independent business, so their registration, their tax filings and their bank are their responsibility. Many arrangements run for years on exactly that basis without anybody looking.

The difficulty is that the consequences do not stay with the contractor. Your own tax authority may want evidence of their status before accepting the cost as deductible. Your finance team may find a payment rejected because their bank asked a question nobody answered. And in some jurisdictions the arrangement itself gets re-examined, at which point the question is not whether they were registered but what the relationship actually looked like.

What we keep finding

Long-standing ФОП in poor standing

Registrations under the wrong activity codes, the wrong tax group for the work being done, unfiled returns, accrued penalties and missing documentation. Usually discovered when somebody finally needs the paperwork.

What we do about it

Clean it up before the contract, not after

We check the standing of every existing ФОП before you commit to anything, and resolve what is outstanding. You start from a known position rather than an assumed one.

Setting one up

Registration, handled end to end

Registering a ФОП is an administrative process rather than a legal one, and we run it under a notarised power of attorney so your contractor does not have to navigate it. Where a genuine legal question arises we bring in a qualified lawyer with your agreement rather than improvising an answer.
Activity codes

The right KVED for the actual work

Registered activity has to cover what you are paying for. The wrong codes are the most common defect we find, and it is the one that undermines invoices retrospectively.

Tax group

Simplified taxation, chosen deliberately

Group 3 at 5% of turnover suits most consulting and IT work; group 2 carries a flat monthly charge and tighter restrictions on who you may invoice. The choice has consequences and should not be made by default.

Registration

Filing and the state extracts

Documents prepared and filed, the extract from the Unified State Register obtained, and single-tax payer status confirmed in writing rather than assumed.

Authority

A notarised power of attorney

So we can act for the ФОП on filings and administration. Without it, every routine matter waits for the contractor to find time for it.

Banking

A dedicated business account

Opened for the ФОП’s business activity and kept separate from personal money, which is the first thing anyone examining the arrangement looks at.

Standing check

Before you sign anything

For contractors who are already registered, a full review of the position: filings, liabilities, penalties and documentation, with what we found in writing.

Щоденна робота

What happens every month

Costs

Expenses reviewed and validated

Office rent, travel, equipment and anything else recharged through the ФОП, checked for whether it belongs there and whether it is documented well enough to survive being questioned.

The calculation

What has to be invoiced so the net arrives

Working backwards from the amount agreed with your contractor to the invoice figure, after single tax, the social contribution and bank charges. Get this wrong and either they are short or you are overpaying.

Invoicing

Issued in English and Ukrainian

Your finance team gets a document they can process and file. The Ukrainian side gets one that satisfies local requirements. Same invoice, both audiences.

Договори

Kept current, not filed and forgotten

Service agreements and annexes updated as the work changes, because a contract describing work nobody does any more is worse than no contract at all.

Filings

The ФОП’s own obligations

Single tax and social contribution paid on time, returns filed, and the turnover ceiling for the chosen group monitored so nobody discovers it after crossing it.

The bank

Financial monitoring, answered early

Ukrainian banks query cross-border payments to ФОП accounts as a matter of routine. We answer those queries when they arrive. An unanswered one becomes a frozen account, and a frozen account means your contractor is not paid.

Скільки коштує помилка

The exposure sits with you, not only with them

At home

The cost stops being deductible

Several jurisdictions require evidence of a foreign contractor’s legal and tax standing before allowing the expense. If the ФОП cannot produce current documentation, the deduction can be challenged in your accounts, not theirs.

Виплата

A frozen account, mid-month

Financial monitoring queries are routine and answerable. Ignored, they stop the account. Your contractor does not get paid, and reopening it takes considerably longer than answering the question would have.

Classification

A contractor who looks like staff

Some tax authorities will examine whether the arrangement is really independent contracting. That question is decided on how the relationship works day to day, and the answer can carry employment tax consequences in your own jurisdiction as well as in Ukraine. Worth taking to your own advisers rather than assuming.

When you do not need this

We would rather say this here than discover it three months into an engagement.
Probably not worth it

One or two straightforward contractors

If you work with a couple of well-established ФОП who file their own returns and have never had a bank query, a self-service platform will administer that more cheaply than we will. We have lost clients to exactly that and it was the right outcome for them.

Worth it

Several contractors, or one that matters

Where the number is enough that something is always outstanding, where recharged costs run through the arrangement, where your auditor asks about deductibility, or where a single contractor is critical enough that a frozen account becomes your problem within days.

Questions about ФОП arrangements

Do we need a Ukrainian company for this?

No. That is the point of the arrangement. Your contractor is an independent Ukrainian business invoicing you directly, and you contract with them from wherever you are.

If you later reach the stage of employing people here rather than contracting with them, that is a different structure with different obligations, and we run that too. But nothing about this service requires you to incorporate first.

What does it cost to run a ФОП?

On simplified taxation, a group 3 ФОП pays 5% of turnover as single tax, plus a monthly social contribution set at 22% of the minimum wage, which is UAH 8,647 in 2026. There is also a turnover ceiling for the group, which we monitor.

Our administration fee sits on top of that and is per ФОП per month. What it is depends on how many you have and what state they are in when we take them over.

Can you control who else our contractor works for?

No, and you should be wary of anyone offering to. A private entrepreneur is by definition an independent business entitled to other clients, and restricting that is precisely the kind of control that makes an arrangement look like employment rather than contracting.

What we can do is make sure the arrangement is documented, the standing is clean and the commercial terms are clear. Exclusivity, where you need it, is a matter for the contract and for your lawyer.

We inherited some ФОП arrangements. Where do we start?

With a standing check. We look at each registration: activity codes, tax group, filings, outstanding liabilities, penalties and documentation, and give you the position in writing before you decide anything.

It is common to find something. It is much better to find it deliberately than to find it because a bank, an auditor or a tax authority found it first.

Send us the ФОП you already work with

We check the standing of each one, activity codes, tax group, filings and outstanding liabilities, and tell you in writing what we found. No charge, and no obligation to appoint us afterwards.

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