Kazakh President Approves New Tax Code

On July 18, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a new Tax Code along with an accompanying law introducing amendments to the country's tax legislation. The reforms are designed to simplify tax administration, ease the tax burden, and boost economic growth.

The new Tax Code reduces the volume of tax reporting by 30% and cuts the number of taxes by 20%, reported Akorda. Tax benefits and fees have also been optimized across the board. The changes encompass key areas, including corporate and individual income taxes, investment incentives, and the redistribution of the tax burden, The Caspian Post reports citing The Astana Times.

A new base value-added tax (VAT) rate has been set at 16%. For medicines and medical services, a reduced VAT rate will apply, starting at 5% in 2026 and increasing to 10% in 2027.

Services within the guaranteed volume of free medical care and compulsory social health insurance, treatment of orphan and socially significant diseases according to the list determined by the government, services for publishing books in printed form, and archaeological work are exempt from VAT.

A reduced VAT rate of 10% has been established for the sale of periodicals. The threshold for mandatory VAT registration has been reduced to 10,000 monthly calculation index (MCI) or 40 million tenge (US$75,062).

Pension payments from the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund are exempt from individual income tax. The transport tax has been reduced for cars older than 10 years. The social tax deduction for persons with disabilities has been increased from 882 MCI or 3,468,024 tenge (US$6,508) to 5,000 MCI or 19,660,000 tenge (US$36,894).

Special tax regimes have been optimized, with only three remaining: for the self-employed, based on a simplified declaration, and for farms.

The self-employed will be able to calculate and pay payments through a mobile application.