Small and Medium Business amidst Economic Turbulence: Ukraine’s Experience

Abstract

In Ukraine, the importance of small business for the economy and the need to stimulate it are being realized at the level of both the scientific community and public administration. The situation with the pandemic has complicated the conditions of functioning of small and medium-sized busines entities (hereinafter SMEs), but at the same time has justified the need to support it not only in the situation of collapse, but also as a matter of socio-economic stabilization and the prospect of reducing the unemployment rate. The status and conditions of SME functioning, its importance in various spheres of economic activity and in the labor market are researched. The emphasis is on modern trends in the functioning of SMEs, financial relations between the State and SME entities. A comparison of classification characteristics of SMEs was conducted in accordance with the Tax and Commercial Codes of Ukraine. The conditions of operation of small and medium-sized businesses on a simplified taxation system are compared. The latest legislative changes related to the stabilization policy of the State are taken into account. To identify the main trends of small business development, an analysis of the dynamics of the quantity, composition and structure of business in terms of its size, as well as the dynamics of the number of small enterprises and individual entrepreneurs by the largest groups in accordance with the classification of domestic economic activity in the country was carried out. The significance of SMEs in the employment structure is defined in the plane of enterprises and in terms of their size; the need to stimulate entrepreneurship in conditions of global instability is proved. A chronological analysis of the introduction of fiscal instruments for supporting the State in an emergency situation was carried out. In view of international experience, alternative quarantine preferences are considered as possible measures of the State support.