How to calculate the court fee for a civil claim in 2026

When this is needed

Cal­cu­late the court fee before filing a civil claim so that the payment matches the claims and filing method. If the amount is too low or the payment doc­u­ment is not prop­er­ly com­plet­ed, the court may leave the ap­pli­ca­tion without move­ment and set a dead­line to correct the defects. If you overpay, a sep­a­rate legal basis and pro­ce­dure will be needed to obtain a refund.

This guide covers a spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tion: an in­di­vid­ual or sole pro­pri­etor filing a civil claim in a court of first in­stance in 2026. Dif­fer­ent rates apply to legal en­ti­ties, ad­min­is­tra­tive or com­mer­cial cases, appeals, cas­sa­tion appeals, ap­pli­ca­tions for a court order, and other pro­ce­dur­al doc­u­ments.

Start with the draft prayer for relief, not the mul­ti­pli­ca­tion. De­ter­mine:

1. whether the claim seeks money or other prop­er­ty that can be valued;
2. its value under the Civil Pro­ce­dure Code;
3. how many in­de­pen­dent non-prop­er­ty claims the ap­pli­ca­tion con­tains;
4. whether the claimant qual­i­fies for an ex­emp­tion;
5. whether the doc­u­ment will be filed on paper or elec­tron­i­cal­ly.

For an arith­metic check, use the court fee cal­cu­la­tor for a claim. If you have already paid but the claim was re­turned, pro­ceed­ings were not opened, or you over­paid, use the sep­a­rate court fee refund cal­cu­la­tor.

If your fi­nan­cial cir­cum­stances make it dif­fi­cult to pay the cal­cu­lat­ed amount, sep­a­rate­ly check the 5% thresh­old and the pro­ce­dure for prepar­ing a motion to reduce or defer the fee. This is not an au­to­mat­ic ex­emp­tion; the court makes the de­ci­sion.

What deadline or procedure applies

Under Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On Court Fees”, per­cent­age rates and rates set as frac­tions of the sub­sis­tence minimum are based on the amount for able-bodied persons es­tab­lished as of January 1 of the year in which the ap­pli­ca­tion is filed. The Law on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2026 sets this amount at UAH 3,328.

For an in­di­vid­ual’s or sole pro­pri­etor’s prop­er­ty civil claim:

• base rate — 1% of the claim value;
• minimum — 0.4 × 3,328 = UAH 1,331.20;
• maximum — 5 × 3,328 = UAH 16,640.

The prop­er­ty fee there­fore has three pos­si­ble out­comes:

property component = min(16,640; max(1,331.20; claim value × 1%)).

For an in­di­vid­ual’s non-prop­er­ty civil claim, the rate is 0.4 of the subsistence minimum, or UAH 1,331.20. If two or more in­de­pen­dent non-prop­er­ty claims are com­bined in one ap­pli­ca­tion, the fee is paid for each of them:

non-property component = 1,331.20 × number of claims.

For a com­bined claim, the law re­quires payment under both the prop­er­ty and non-prop­er­ty rates. The com­po­nents are added to­geth­er. If the pro­ce­dur­al doc­u­ment is filed elec­tron­i­cal­ly, the 0.8 co­ef­fi­cient applies to the rel­e­vant rate:

electronic payment = (property + non-property components) × 0.8.

The cal­cu­la­tor works to the nearest kopeck. The 1% amount and the result after ap­ply­ing the co­ef­fi­cient are rounded to the nearest kopeck using the “half up” rule. This is a tech­ni­cal con­ven­tion for a re­pro­ducible result; before paying, check the amount against the current rules and the se­lect­ed court’s details.

How to proceed step by step

Suppose an in­di­vid­ual is prepar­ing a com­bined claim for the com­pe­tent local court in Lviv. The prop­er­ty claim is UAH 250,000, and the claimant also brings two in­de­pen­dent non-prop­er­ty claims. The doc­u­ment will be filed through the court’s elec­tron­ic system.

1. Cal­cu­late 1% of the prop­er­ty claim: 250,000 × 1% = UAH 2,500.
2. Compare it with the limits: UAH 2,500 is more than UAH 1,331.20 and less than UAH 16,640, so the per­cent­age rate applies.
3. Cal­cu­late the non-prop­er­ty com­po­nent: 1,331.20 × 2 = UAH 2,662.40.
4. Add the amounts: 2,500 + 2,662.40 = UAH 5,162.40.
5. Apply the elec­tron­ic filing co­ef­fi­cient: 5,162.40 × 0.8 = UAH 4,129.92.

This is a pre­lim­i­nary arith­metic cal­cu­la­tion, not con­fir­ma­tion that there are two non-prop­er­ty claims. If one claim is merely a remedy, a con­se­quence of another claim, or ef­fec­tive­ly du­pli­cates it, the fee may require a dif­fer­ent legal as­sess­ment.

For a small prop­er­ty claim, such as UAH 50,000, one percent is only UAH 500, so the minimum of UAH 1,331.20 applies. For a claim valued at UAH 2,000,000, one percent is UAH 20,000, but the maximum of UAH 16,640 applies. This is why simply taking 1% pro­duces an in­cor­rect result at both ends of the range.

What to check before filing

First, check the claim value. The Civil Pro­ce­dure Code de­ter­mines it dif­fer­ent­ly de­pend­ing on the claim: by the amount sought, the value of prop­er­ty, the total pay­ments for a spec­i­fied period, and other rules. The cal­cu­la­tor takes an already de­ter­mined value and does not decide which amounts belong in it.

Next, check the number of non-prop­er­ty claims. Not every para­graph in the prayer for relief is au­to­mat­i­cal­ly a sep­a­rate fee-bearing claim, but com­bin­ing several reme­dies into one item does not nec­es­sar­i­ly make them a single claim. The sub­stance, in­de­pen­dent outcome, and re­la­tion­ship between the claims matter.

Before paying, sep­a­rate­ly confirm:

• whether Article 5 of the Law or a special pro­vi­sion exempts the claimant from the fee;
• whether there are grounds to ask the court to defer or allow payment by in­stall­ments, reduce the fee, or grant an ex­emp­tion based on the claimant’s fi­nan­cial cir­cum­stances;
• whether the claim is in fact being filed elec­tron­i­cal­ly if you used the 0.8 co­ef­fi­cient;
• which court has ju­ris­dic­tion and which payment details are current for that court;
• whether the payer, payment purpose, and other payment in­struc­tion details are correct.

Do not carry the 2026 cal­cu­la­tion base into the next cal­en­dar year. Rates linked to the sub­sis­tence minimum must be updated every year, even if the 1% rate and the 0.4 and 5 mul­ti­pli­ers in the law remain un­changed.

If the court has already left the claim without move­ment because of the fee, comply care­ful­ly with the ruling within the spec­i­fied time. The general pro­ce­dure is ex­plained in the guide to cor­rect­ing defects in a state­ment of claim, and the dead­line cal­cu­la­tor for cor­rect­ing defects can help check the date.

When to consult a lawyer

Legal review is es­pe­cial­ly useful if the claim com­bines own­er­ship, re­cov­ery of money, can­cel­la­tion of a reg­is­tra­tion action, in­val­i­da­tion of a trans­ac­tion, or other dif­fer­ent reme­dies. The common error is not arith­metic but clas­si­fi­ca­tion: which claims are prop­er­ty claims, which are non-prop­er­ty claims, and how many are in­de­pen­dent.

Seek help if the claim value depends on a real estate val­u­a­tion, re­cur­ring pay­ments, a share in prop­er­ty, or several amounts; if the claimant relies on an ex­emp­tion; if you need to ask for de­fer­ral or a re­duc­tion; or if you are unsure whether the elec­tron­ic filing method qual­i­fies.

For a case in Lviv or Lviv region, a lawyer can match the subject of the claim to venue, check the claim value, the struc­ture of the claims, the basis for an ex­emp­tion, and the payment details for the spe­cif­ic court. This review can dis­tin­guish a simple arith­metic error from a sit­u­a­tion where the fee must be de­ter­mined under a dif­fer­ent legal frame­work.