From 1 January 2027, electronics stores and car dealers in Ukraine that are registered for VAT will no longer be able to write just "smartphone, 20 units" on a tax invoice. They will have to list the IMEI of every phone sold, and the VIN of every vehicle. The requirement comes from bill No. 16037-д, passed by the Verkhovna Rada on 11 November 2026. On paper it is a few extra fields in a document. In practice businesses will have to rebuild inventory accounting from the warehouse to the accounting team. Here is who is affected, where the difficulties lie and what to do now.
Selling phones or cars with VAT? Alfa Gold keeps the books for trading companies and adapts them to new rules. Learn more about accounting for legal entities.
| Goods | UKT ZED code | What to add to the tax invoice | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cars, trucks, buses, special-purpose vehicles | 8702–8705 | VIN of each vehicle | 1 January 2027 |
| Smartphones | 8517 13 00 00 | IMEI of each device | 1 January 2027 |
| Other phones for cellular and wireless networks | 8517 14 00 00 | IMEI of each device | 1 January 2027 |
The rule applies only to VAT payers. Sole proprietors (FOPs) on the simplified tax system who are not VAT-registered do not issue tax invoices, so it does not affect them directly.
A VIN is a unique 17-character vehicle identification number. An IMEI is the international identifier of a mobile device, different for every phone. Both let you tell one specific unit apart from thousands of identical ones.
Today a seller lists the product name, UKT ZED code, quantity, price, VAT rate and VAT amount on a tax invoice. From 2027 that will not be enough for cars and phones: the tax authority will see not "a car of brand X was sold" but exactly which car and which phone went to the buyer.
Imagine a store that sells 20 identical smartphones of one model in a day.
Today one line in the accounting software is enough: "Samsung smartphone, 20 pcs" with price and VAT. From 2027 the business will need to know exactly which 20 devices were sold and the IMEI of each one.
Where will the accountant get this data? Most stores track stock by product line, not by serial number. So the rule affects more than accounting. It affects the warehouse, the point-of-sale software and the whole inventory system.
Stores selling phones to consumers usually issue tax invoices on daily sales totals. Now imagine an electronics chain that sells 100 or 200 phones a day.
The obligation is already in the law. The electronic document formats and filling rules still have to be approved. Until then there are no official answers to these questions.
Not directly. Bill No. 16037-д changes the required details of the tax invoice, not of the fiscal receipt. It does not require printing an IMEI or VIN on every receipt.
There is a catch, though. To issue a correct invoice, the accountant needs data on the specific item sold. So the POS or inventory software must capture the IMEI and VIN at the point of sale and pass them to the accounting system. If yours cannot, now is the time to ask your software provider.
Accountants often never see serial numbers. The store sends them a sales report: how many phones were sold and for how much. After 2027 such a report will not be enough.
If the chain "receipt of goods → warehouse → sale → accounting" does not keep the identifiers, the company risks errors on its invoices. And an error in tax invoice details is a direct route to the invoice being blocked and to disputes with the tax authority. So the process has to be set up at the inventory stage, not on the last day for registering the invoice.
Do you record the VIN and IMEI when goods arrive? Can you tell which phone or car went to which buyer?
Does your system store individual identifiers and pass them on for tax documents? Ask your software provider when an update is planned.
Data should flow automatically from the warehouse and till to accounting. Copying IMEIs by hand from boxes onto invoices is unrealistic and risky at hundreds of sales a day.
Once the Ministry of Finance approves updated forms, accounting software will need updating, and the first invoices under the new rules should be checked with extra care.
The Verkhovna Rada passed bill No. 16037-д at second reading and as a whole on 11 November 2026. As of 12 November the document has been sent to the President for signature and is not yet in force.
The new VIN and IMEI fields are due to apply from 1 January 2027. Until then tax invoices are issued under the current rules. The same law changes other VAT rules too, which we covered separately: VAT for sole proprietors in Ukraine: what has been passed and what to expect in 2027–2028.
Some answers will come from secondary legislation, others from State Tax Service guidance. We are following them and will update this article once they appear.
VIN and IMEI on invoices are one more step towards detailed tracking of goods that most often end up in grey schemes. For the state it means a more accurate picture of sales. For businesses it means new accounting requirements.
The hard part is not adding a few digits to a document. What matters far more is that those digits are captured when goods arrive, stored in the system and passed to accounting automatically at the point of sale. There is not much time left before 2027, so review your processes now.
Oleksandra Herasymenko
Alfa Gold brand owner
From 1 January 2027, provided the law is signed and published in its current form.
VAT payers selling vehicles with UKT ZED codes 8702–8705 and phones with codes 8517 13 00 00 and 8517 14 00 00.
The law does not require it. The change concerns tax invoices, but the data for them will have to come from the till or inventory software.
If a sole proprietor is not VAT-registered, they do not issue tax invoices, so the rule does not affect them.
This has not been decided yet. It should be set out in the updated invoice forms or in State Tax Service guidance.
Want to know how the new rules will affect your business? We will review your accounting, software and sales process and tell you what to change before 2027. Get a consultation with Alfa Gold.
Prepared as of 12 November 2026. Dates and application rules will be confirmed once the law is signed and officially published.
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