Finally, it's official. Who will now lead the tax service, and what role does the President's Office play in this?

On the eve of the New Year, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed Ruslan Kravchenko as the head of the State Tax Service (STS). The former head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration (KOVA) and a career prosecutor has taken charge of this key fiscal authority, whose work is crucial for financing the country's defense capabilities during wartime.

Kravchenko's appointment is significant for two reasons. First, he is the first head of the STS without the status of "acting" in over 3.5 years. Second, his appointment marks a shift in the spheres of influence within the tax service.

For years, the business community has urged the government to appoint a permanent head of the STS, as only a full-fledged chief has the political mandate to implement real reforms in the service. These reforms were declared by the government back in late 2023 when they adopted the National Revenue Strategy. Will Kravchenko meet these expectations?

From Prosecutors to Tax Officials

The newly appointed head of the STS, Ruslan Kravchenko, would have been more suited for another top vacant position in the country - that of the Attorney General. He lacks experience in tax services or related fields, as well as in businesses that interact with the tax authorities. However, he has spent nearly his entire career in prosecutorial positions.

Ruslan Kravchenko was born in Severodonetsk in March 1990. He graduated from the Ivan Bohun Military Lyceum in 2007 and from the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University in 2012, majoring in "law" and receiving the rank of "lieutenant of justice".

From 2012 to 2014, he worked in the Sevastopol Prosecutor's Office, and after the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war, he participated in the anti-terrorist operation, serving as a prosecutor for the 33rd Military Prosecutor's Office of the Southern Region. He holds the status of a combatant.

After the ATO, Kravchenko worked at the Main Military Prosecutor's Office. Specifically, as reported by the "Chesno" movement, he was the prosecutor in the case that found fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych guilty of high treason.

In 2020-2021, Kravchenko served as the head of the department for criminal proceedings related to offenses in the defense industry, after which he became the head of the Bucha District Prosecutor's Office in the Kyiv region.

In January 2023, the former head of the Kyiv Regional State Administration, Oleksiy Kuleba, moved to the Office of the President. Kravchenko was appointed to his position, where he worked for the past year and a half.

The new head of the tax service was appointed without any competition. This is permitted by a temporary procedure in place during the state of martial law. Other economic agencies, including customs and the Bureau of Economic Security, are being restructured in Ukraine with competitions for leadership positions involving international experts.

The End of the Headless Era

Kravchenko is the first head of the tax service since May 2021 who will not serve in an "acting" capacity. The last time the STS had a full-fledged leader was in May 2021, when Oleksiy Lyubchenko resigned. He transitioned to the government of Denys Shmyhal as the first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy. Since then, the country's main fiscal authority has been led by individuals with the "acting" title.

The first of them was Yevhen Oleinikov, who joined the STS alongside Lyubchenko. Oleinikov even managed to win the competition for the position of head of the STS, but the Cabinet did not appoint him. Political insiders explained that in the fall of 2021, Lyubchenko's career abruptly "broke down," leading to his decision to resign. Consequently, the government opted not to appoint the former deputy of the resigned minister as the head of the tax service.

Following him, the tax service was led in an "acting" capacity for a month by Mykhailo Tytarchuk, and in December 2021, by the acting head, Tatyana Kiryenko. She led the service in this capacity for three years.

Since the beginning of the large-scale war, the work of the tax service has been critical for Ukraine's ability to fund its own defense capabilities. Despite this, the STS continued to operate without a full-fledged leader, which sometimes caused frustration among taxpayers.