UNBA maintains a systematic dialogue with the subjects of the legislative initiative – Lydia Izovitova

UNBA maintains a systematic dialogue with the subjects of the legislative initiative – Lydia Izovitova.

"We are making serious efforts to maintain a dialogue with people’s deputies, the relevant committee of parliament; with attorneys who are elected to parliament and who work in various fractions, as well as with members of the Commission on Legal Reform under the President of Ukraine ", - the Head of UNBA, BCU said while opening the meeting of the Bar Council of Ukraine in Chernivtsi city.

She reminded that in July 2021 BCU approved the UNBA Development Strategy for the next 5 years. At the same time, the Strategy for the Development of the Justice System and Constitutional Judiciary for 2021-2023 was approved by a presidential decree. This Strategy, in particular, determines the priorities for improving the bar institution.

Thus, starting from July 2021, Lydia Izovitova held a number of meetings with people's deputies on the implementation of the Strategy for the Development of Justice. In particular, the meeting was held with the Head of the Commission on Legal Reform, the People's Deputy of Ukraine Sergey Ionushas. The UNBA appealed to him concerning the discriminatory approach to the taxation of advocacy, currently prescribed in the legislation. In particular, concerning the issue of taxation of advocacy the UNBA proposed to amend the Tax Code of Ukraine on the taxation of income received by individuals engaged in independent professional activity. This concerns the right of attorneys as a natural person pursuing an independent professional activity to pay taxes under the simplified system of taxation and to pay a single tax of the relevant group.

“Our proposals meet the real needs of practicing attorneys and will ensure fair and equal conditions for taxation of income received by attorneys as self-employed persons (natural persons-entrepreneurs and natural persons engaged in independent professional activity). Now a new session of the Verkhovna Rada has opened and we hope that our proposals will be considered by the people's deputies," - Lydia Izovitova said.

Also in July 2021, a memorandum was signed between UNBA and the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the organization of state power, local self-government, regional development and urban planning. It is also a tool for building cooperation with parliamentarians to improve legislation. The head of UNBA, BCU noted that the Parliament is interested in involving attorneys, the UNBA committees in the legislative process.

In addition, in the context of the Presidential Strategy, the UNBA has proposals on how to reform the procedure for access to the advocacy, conducting qualifying exams. The UNBA improves the system of professional development of attorneys constantly, introduces electronic services for attorneys.

"Therefore, a significant part of the tasks of the Presidential Strategy can be implemented at the level of decisions of bar self-government bodies, and this approach will best meet international standards of legal independence," - Lydia Izovitova stressed.

In general, changes to the relevant legislation should take place with the participation of the Ukrainian National Bar Association and should meet international standards of independent advocacy and the principle of self-government of the profession.