A fox in the henhouse

How Ukrainian chicken farmer MHP receives massive subsidies while avoiding taxes

Publication

21 October 2020

This report on poultry giant MHP paints a troubling picture of a company that enjoys tax benefits and subsidies in its home state of Ukraine, while using its artificial presence in various tax havens to avoid Ukrainian taxes.

Although it is primarily a Ukrainian agricultural producer – having recently expanded to several other jurisdictions – MHP’s ultimate parent company was located in the tax haven of Luxembourg for 11 years, and then moved to another tax haven, Cyprus, in 2017. MHP’s many group companies in known tax havens, and the fact that many of them appear to be little more than mailbox companies set up to gain access to the fiscal benefits provided by those jurisdictions, indicates that MHP’s tax planning is geared towards avoiding taxes in the countries where it generates its profits.