Forbes: Three Perspectives on Sole Proprietorships. A microbusiness owner, a restaurateur, and a major entrepreneur discuss the government’s “simplified tax” reform. What changes will the mandatory VAT bring, in their view?

March 24, 2026
Forbes: Три грані ФОП. Мікробізнес, ресторатор і великий підприємець про реформу «спрощенки» від уряду. Що змінить обовʼязкове ПДВ, на їх думку?
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In the latest issue of Forbes magazine, Valerii Yakovenko, co-founder of DroneUA, shared his perspective through the lens of his own experience. He founded his first sole proprietorship in the mid-2000s; over the past 20 years, it has grown into an international business specializing in the production and distribution of unmanned aerial vehicles, with NASA among its clients. According to the entrepreneur, DroneUA’s total revenue stands at $135 million. 

The simplified tax system is a window of opportunity for starting a business,” says the expert.

However, when it comes to scaling a business, the simplified system is viewed differently. Valerii notes that for some entrepreneurs, the transition from the standard taxation system remains a barrier, even though in practice it is not overly complicated and does not result in a significant increase in the tax burden, even for larger businesses. The company’s own experience only confirms this:

At a certain stage of DroneUA’s development, we operated both as an LLC and maintained my sole proprietorship, using it to provide certain services, such as repairs. A sole proprietorship is simpler, but scaling is only possible up to a certain point. Of course, for some, this format will be enough for a lifetime, because the business won’t exceed the limits. But for others, the market itself pushes them to change their approach,” the expert shares.

Read the full interview at the link below:

https://forbes.ua/money/tri-grani-fop-mikrobiznes-restorator-i-velikiy-pidpriemets-pro-reformu-sproshchenki-shcho-zminit-pdv-12032026-37000  

DroneUA thanks Forbes for covering a topic of relevance to Ukrainian business.

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DroneUA is an international system integrator of unmanned solutions and robotics.

On the market of Ukraine and Eastern Europe, the DroneUA group of companies is the largest importer and distributor of leading drone manufacturers in the world and represents technological solutions from the brands XAG, EcoFlow, Pix4D, Parrot, Chasing, DroneDeploy, AgroCares and others.

The group of companies has its own engineering, production and service divisions, as well as an open data processing center. Technological solutions presented by DroneUA are used on more than 4 million hectares of cultivated areas of Ukraine. According to the results of the 2021 and 2022 agricultural seasons, more than 2.2 million hectares were protected with drone sprayers from DroneUA.

DroneUA is among the top three most innovative businesses in the agricultural sector of Ukraine according to FORBES and among the twenty most innovative enterprises of Ukraine.

The group of companies continues to expand the list of technological brands that it presents on the Ukrainian market, and is active in agriculture, the oil and gas industry, as well as in the fields of energy, geodesy and topography.

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