5 July 2021

Digitalization in Diia – a new bill to stimulate the development of the digital economy of Ukraine

The Parliament supported the bill on stimulating the development of the digital economy, or simply - the bill of the Diia City. Today we will briefly talk about the features of this bill. We would like to point out right away that this post does not concern the tax part of the Diia Citi.

Diia City is a legal regime that is granted for a minimum of 15 years and refers to the regulation of the relationship between Diia City residents-legal entities and employees, gig-specialists or individual entrepreneurs.

A Ukrainian company can acquire the status of a resident of the Diia City if it:

  • has an average of 9 employees / gig-specialists;
  • the average monthly compensation to an employee or a gig-specialist of the company is 1,200 euros;
  • conducts business activities in computer programming, circulation of virtual assets, provides consulting on informatization, publishing of computer games and other software, provision of software online, operates web-sites, conducts cybersports competitions;
  • part of the company's income from business activities in these areas accounts for 90% of its total income.

A legal entity acquires the status of a resident of the Diia City from the day it is entered into the electronic registry. At the same time, this status must be maintained annually by submitting reports.

According to the bill, a gig-specialist is a natural person who is not registered as an individual entrepreneur but provides services or performs work for the benefit of a resident of the Diia City without being its employee. The bill also provides for social guarantees for gig-specialists:

  • an annual paid leave of 17 days;
  • 56 days of paid parental leave;
  • the period of work shall not be 40 hours per week, but may be changed by agreement of the parties;
  • unless otherwise agreed, the Diia City resident must designate the workplace of the gig-specialist and provide the necessary means to carry out the tasks;
  • In addition, the Diia City resident will have to pay for the gig-specialist the unified social contribution (UST, a mandatory payment to the national social insurance). contribution

Most importantly, what is the relationship between Diia City residents and gig-specialists? The main part of the bill is devoted to this question.

  • The contract that is signed between a resident of the Diia City and a gig-specialist is called a gig-contract, and in essence it is a civil law contract for services or works;
  • Signing and executing a gig-contract is not a business and does not give rise to employment relations;
  • By default, tasks under a gig-contract can be set using electronic means (e-mail, online service). IT often uses platforms such as GitHub, Trello and Jira, etc. The provision on the possibility of their use (to identify the parties and coordinate tasks) was usually included in contracts. And now it's actually legalized by law! This will facilitate the work of IT companies, especially in cases of disputes with the gig-specialist;
  • Special provisions of the bill relate to the transfer of intellectual property rights for works created by hygienists (e.g., computer programs, design, etc.). The bill expressly provides that the economic intellectual property belong to the ordering customer, i.e. the resident of the Diia City from the moment of their occurrence in the hygienist;
  • For the first time the regulation of NDA (non-disclosure agreement), NCA (non-competition agreement) and NSA (non-transfer agreement) is provided at the legislative level and the possibility to recover compensation for their violation is established.

As we can see, the bill of the Diia City is a big step in the direction of the digitalization of the economy, which can not but rejoice!

Изображение
Get a solution
Leave your request
We'll get back to you as soon as possible and find the best solution for your request!
By submitting the form I confirm that I have read and accept Privacy Policy