Selling property in Ukraine from abroad: power of attorney, taxes, money

In short

You can sell a flat or a house in Ukraine without travelling there — through a representative acting under a power of attorney. Three things need to be settled in advance, and the third one causes the most trouble:

1. the power of attorney — where and how to issue it so a Ukrainian notary will accept it;
2. taxes — they depend not on your citizenship but on your tax residency;
3. the money — under martial law the proceeds cannot be wired to a foreign account.

Power of attorney: consulate or foreign notary

Option 1 — a Ukrainian consular office. The best route. The document is drawn up in Ukrainian, certified by the consul, and has the same force as one from a Ukrainian notary: no apostille, no legalisation, no translation. It is entered in the Unified Register of Powers of Attorney, so the notary in Ukraine can see it electronically. Appointments are booked through the e-Consul system; queues at busy consulates can run for months, so start here.

Option 2 — a local notary in your country of residence. For when there is no consulate nearby. The document will be in a foreign language and needs legalisation:

• an apostille — for states party to the 1961 Hague Convention (most of the EU, the UK, the US, Canada); affixed by the competent authority of the issuing country;
• nothing but a translation — for countries with a legal-assistance treaty with Ukraine (notably Poland and the Czech Republic);
• consular legalisation — for countries outside the Hague Convention.

After that, a notarized Ukrainian translation of both the power of attorney and the apostille is made in Ukraine. Such a document is not entered in the Unified Register, so the original has to be physically delivered to the notary in Ukraine.

A consul can certify the power of attorney to sell, but not the sale contract itself — the transaction is still executed before a notary in Ukraine.

What the power of attorney must say

This is where deals most often stall: the representative arrives at the notary and the authority granted turns out to be too narrow. Agree the wording with the Ukrainian notary before you go to the consul. The text usually spells out the right to:

• conclude and sign the sale contract, and set the price and other terms;
• receive the money due under the contract;
• order a valuation, register extracts and certificates;
• represent you before the tax authority, the bank and the registration bodies;
• file applications for state registration of the transfer of ownership.

State the validity period and whether sub-delegation is allowed.

Taxes: 0% applies more often than people think

A common myth is that a non-resident always pays 18%. In fact, a non-resident's income from selling property is taxed under the same rules as a resident's (art. 172.9 of the Tax Code), and the exemption in art. 172.1 applies to non-residents too:

Where tax does arise, the income can be reduced by documented acquisition costs (art. 172.2). Separately: 1% state duty on the contract price and a 1% Pension Fund levy, which is paid by the buyer.

The tax must be paid before the contract is executed — without proof of payment the notary will not certify it.

"Resident" here means tax residency, not citizenship and not where you currently live. A couple of years in Poland does not by itself make you a non-resident — see the separate guide on residency below.

The money: the biggest and least expected trap

Under martial law the governing principle is that cross-border currency transactions are prohibited unless expressly permitted. Proceeds from selling property are not among the permitted ones — you cannot transfer them to your own foreign account (by SWIFT or otherwise), and this applies to residents and non-residents alike. There is currently no repatriation mechanism for individuals selling Ukrainian assets.

What actually works:

• keeping the money in a Ukrainian bank account (including on deposit);
• P2P transfers from a Ukrainian card to a foreign one — within the monthly cap, currently UAH 100,000 equivalent across all your cards (banks may lower it for higher-risk clients);
• carrying cash out with a declaration: amounts above EUR 10,000 must be declared at customs, and you may be asked for evidence of lawful origin;
• paying with a Ukrainian card abroad, within the National Bank's limits.

The National Bank revises these limits regularly — check the current rules before the deal, not after it.

Whichever route you take, keep the sale contract, the register extract, the tax payment receipts and a bank statement: this is exactly the pack a foreign bank will ask for when it questions the source of funds.

The sequence

1. Verify ownership and the absence of encumbrances or seizures (an extract from the State Register of Property Rights).
2. Choose a representative and agree the wording of the power of attorney with a notary in Ukraine.
3. Issue the power of attorney: at the consulate (booked via e-Consul) or before a foreign notary, plus apostille/legalisation and translation.
4. Valuation and the electronic certificate of appraised value — the notary cannot certify the contract without it.
5. Pay the income tax and military levy if they arise.
6. Execution of the contract before the notary and registration of the transfer of ownership.
7. Decide in advance what will happen to the money.

Legal basis

• Civil Code of Ukraine, arts. 237–250 (representation, powers of attorney, their form and term);
• Law of Ukraine "On Notariat" — notarial acts of Ukrainian consular offices and the Unified Register of Powers of Attorney;
• Tax Code of Ukraine, art. 172 (in particular 172.1, 172.2, 172.9), art. 167.1, and art. 16-1 of subsection 10 of section XX (military levy);
• Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Hague, 1961);
• National Bank Board Resolution No. 18 of 24.02.2022 — currency restrictions for the period of martial law.