A qualifying badge opening a gate into a cluster of buildings

Diia City for companies that are not software houses: who actually qualifies

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Rules checked on 22 September 2026. Amounts follow the minimum wage of UAH 8,647 set for 2026 by the State Budget Law, Article 8.

Diia City is Ukraine's special legal and tax regime for the digital economy. Foreign owners hear about it in one line — 5% income tax on staff, a capped social contribution, 9% corporate tax — and reasonably ask whether their Ukrainian company can join.

The honest answer for most non-software businesses is no, and the reason is worth understanding before anyone spends money on advice. But “non-IT” is not the same as “not digital”, and several of the eleven qualifying activities have nothing to do with writing software. This briefing sets out which doors are actually open, what membership costs, and when it is worth it.

1. Three gates, and you must pass all of them

A Diia City resident is a Ukrainian legal entity meeting every requirement in Article 5 of Law No. 1667-IX:

Requirement The test
Qualifying activity One or more of the activities in Article 5(4), stated in the charter or the state register
Pay Average monthly remuneration of employees and gig specialists of at least the equivalent of EUR 1,200, at the NBU rate on the first day of each month
Headcount Average of at least nine employees and gig specialists per calendar month
Qualified income At least 90% of total income from the qualifying activities — measured over the first three months and then each calendar year
No disqualifying ground Article 5(2) — see below

The first thing a foreign owner must know: a company registered under the law of a foreign state cannot be a resident (Article 5(2)(1)). Diia City is for your Ukrainian subsidiary, not for your German or Dutch parent, and not for a representative office.

Other bars in Article 5(2): 25% or more owned directly or indirectly by the state or a municipality; non-profit status; breach of the ultimate-beneficial-owner disclosure rules; any ownership by an aggressor state, its companies or its citizens; 25% or more owned by companies registered in FATF-listed non-cooperative jurisdictions; sanctions; bankruptcy; being wound up; tax debt over ten minimum wages outstanding for more than 30 days; unlicensed virtual-asset services; and organising gambling.

2. The activities — including the ones that are not software

Article 5(4) lists eleven activities, plus a twelfth reserved for whatever the Cabinet of Ministers adds later. Four of them are squarely about software: programming and IT consulting, publishing software and computer games, delivering software online, and data processing and web portals.

The ones a non-software business should look at:

Activity What it covers The catch
IT education (4) Higher, vocational and professional education in computer science, information systems, computer engineering, cybersecurity and data science — and digital-literacy training, business analysis, QA, system administration, project management and documentation The teaching must be in these subjects. A general training company does not qualify
Cybersecurity (10) Protecting systems and data, incident detection and response, secure system design, consulting, operating security equipment and software, and research in the field The broadest genuinely non-software door
Robotics (11) Design, research and testing of robotic technologies, devices and systems using computerised control systems Reads on engineering businesses, not only software ones
R&D (6) Research and experimental development in natural and technical sciences concerning information and communication technologies The ICT link is the limit
E-sports (8) Tournament organisers, teams, specialised computer centres and clubs, and broadcast studios A genuine entertainment-sector route
Digital marketing (7) Marketing campaigns and advertising using software developed with the participation of the Diia City resident, on the internet or on users' devices The condition does the work: buying media does not qualify. You must have had a hand in building the software
Virtual assets (9) Virtual-asset service providers Only if you hold whatever registration or licence the law requires

Read that table honestly against your own business. A logistics company, a manufacturer, a retailer or a recruitment firm does not become eligible because it has a development team — the 90% qualified-income test is measured on the company's total income, so a company whose revenue comes from selling goods or non-digital services will fail it even if its engineers would qualify.

The usual structure for a group that wants both is a separate Ukrainian company for the qualifying activity. That is a real decision with transfer-pricing and substance consequences, not a formality.

3. The startup route, if you are new and small

Article 5(3) lets a young company stay a resident until 31 December of the year following the year it obtained the status without meeting two of the tests — but only two. It waives the EUR 1,200 average pay and the nine-person headcount. It does not waive the qualifying activity, the 90% qualified-income test or the absence of disqualifying grounds: Article 5(3)(1) expressly requires compliance with items 1, 4 and 5 of Article 5(1).

The additional conditions are:

  • registration no earlier than 24 months before the application; and
  • income below the Group 3 single-tax ceiling — UAH 10,091,049 in 2026 — in the year before the application, the year of the application, the year the status is obtained and the year after.

If the company meets the full Article 5(1) requirements by then, it simply continues. This is the only route in which a new venture can use the regime before it has nine people on EUR 1,200 each.

4. What you get

For the people. This is the part worth having:

Charge Diia City specialist Ordinary Ukrainian employee
Personal income tax 5% up to EUR 240,000 a year, 18% above (Tax Code 167.2 via 170.14-1.2, 170.14-1.3) 18%
Military levy 5% 5%
Social contribution Minimum insurance contribution per person — UAH 1,902.34 a month whatever the pay (Law No. 2464-VI, Art. 8(14-1)) 22% of the whole salary

On a salary of UAH 100,000 a month the social contribution alone falls from 22,000 to 1,902.34, and the employee's income tax from 18,000 to 5,000.

The 5% rate is capped. It applies to salary and gig remuneration up to the equivalent of EUR 240,000 per specialist per calendar year, at the NBU rate on 1 January of that year. Anything above that is taxed at the ordinary 18%, and the individual has to declare the excess themselves (Tax Code, 170.14-1.3). For most teams this never bites; for a senior executive on a Ukrainian contract it can.

The capped social contribution has a condition the tax rate does not. It applies only in calendar months in which the resident actually meets the EUR 1,200 average pay and nine-person headcount tests (Law No. 2464-VI, Art. 8(14-1)). A resident that drops below either in a given month pays the ordinary 22% for that month. Startup-route residents are relieved of the headcount test — but not the pay test — until 31 December of the year following the year they obtained the status.

Two further conditions. Both the 5% rate and the capped contribution apply only from the calendar month after the company obtains Diia City status, and both are switched off for a resident that also holds Defence City status (Law No. 4577-IX of 21 August 2025).

For the company. A resident may elect to be taxed “on special terms”: 9% instead of 18%, but on a different base — broadly, profit when it is distributed and on certain other operations, rather than on profit as it is earned (Tax Code, 136.8). It is an exit-capital regime, not a lower rate on the same thing. Whether it helps depends entirely on whether you intend to distribute.

You cannot keep the single tax. A single-tax payer that obtains Diia City status must move to the general system from the first day of the month following that quarter (Tax Code, 298.2.3(10)). For a small company already paying 5% on turnover under Group 3, that trade needs doing on paper before you apply.

Two side effects that matter under martial law. Diia City residence is one of the qualifying criteria for critical-enterprise status, which is what allows an employer to reserve staff from mobilisation — see military reservation of key staff. And a Diia City resident counts as an employer paying the social contribution, so a contractor who also has a gig contract may be exempt from paying it for themselves.

5. Gig contracts are not a loophole

The gig contract is Diia City's third employment form, between an employment contract and a service contract. It is more protective than foreign owners expect:

  • working time may be agreed but cannot exceed 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week (Article 21);
  • an annual paid break of 17 working days, available after six continuous months, unless the contract gives more (Article 20);
  • sick pay through the state social insurance system, and a maternity break of 70 days before and 56 after the birth — 70 after a complicated or multiple birth (Article 22);
  • the resident must notify the tax authority of the gig contract before the specialist starts work (Article 23).

And two points from our other briefings: a foreign gig specialist still needs a work permit — gig contracts sit inside the permit regime, and the draft gig contract is one of the application documents (see work permits and residence). The 5% rate belongs to a Diia City resident's specialists; it is not available to a foreign company contracting directly with Ukrainians (see paying Ukrainian FOP contractors).

6. What it costs to stay in

The recurring obligation most summaries leave out is in Article 13:

  • an initial compliance report covering the first three full calendar months after the status is obtained, accompanied by an independent assurance report from an audit firm (startup-route residents are exempt from the assurance report at this stage);
  • an annual compliance report for each calendar year, also with an independent auditor's assurance report attached.

That is an audit engagement every year, for a company that may have nine people. Budget for it before you apply. Losing the status is a decision of the authority which can be appealed within ten working days (Articles 9 and 10).

7. So is it worth it?

Your situation Realistic answer
Ukrainian software, games or SaaS subsidiary Yes, if you can hold nine people at EUR 1,200 and 90% qualified income
Cybersecurity, IT training, robotics R&D or e-sports business Worth a serious look — you are inside the list
Manufacturer, retailer or logistics group with an in-house dev team Not as one company. Consider a separate Ukrainian entity for the qualifying activity
Foreign company with no Ukrainian entity Not available. A Ukrainian company is a precondition
Non-digital services business No
New venture, under the Group 3 income ceiling The startup route buys you until the end of the following year

The payroll saving is real and large. The gates are the nine people, the EUR 1,200 average and the 90% income test — and for most non-IT businesses it is the 90% test, not the activity list, that ends the conversation.

How ClarusApex can help

We tell foreign owners early whether Diia City is realistically open to them, before the advice bills start. Where it is not, we employ the people through APEX AV LLC on ordinary Ukrainian employment contracts, so you get the staff without the structure. Where it is, we help you plan the headcount and pay levels that the status actually requires. See Start up and stay compliant.

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