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Kazakhstan · Contractor taxation guide · 2026
Hiring in Kazakhstan?
Here’s where the money actually goes
Start with the calculator: enter what you pay and see what reaches your contractor. Below it — what each tax takes, the dates behind rate requests, and what it costs you if Kazakhstan counts it as employment, which takes one sign.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Kazakhstan replaced its Tax Code on 1 January 2026 and amended its Labour Code on 8 June 2026, so treat every number here as a starting point and check the regime on your own contract.
Enter what you pay.
See all three bills
Two contractors can quote you the same rate and keep very different amounts of it. In Kazakhstan what decides it is whether they registered at all, and under which regime.
Three taxes.
Here’s what each one costs
Kazakhstan taxes a registered contractor on revenue in the simplest regime and on profit in the other. The contributions come out of their side, and so does the filing: with no presence here you withhold nothing at all.
An entrepreneur on the simplified declaration pays 4% of what they invoice, with no deduction for costs. On the general regime it is 10% of profit. An unregistered individual declares the same income themselves.
Today, 2:15pm
Simplified – 4% of revenue
Tomorrow, 11am
General regime – 10% of profit
Tomorrow, 2pm
Above 230,000 MCI – 15%
Contractors carry their own contributions, all four of them, on a base they declare themselves. At the minimum base that is about $553 a year whatever they invoice. Nothing sits on your side.
Today, 2:15pm
Pension – 10%, plus 3.5% they also pay
Tomorrow, 11am
Social contributions – 5%
Tomorrow, 2pm
Medical – 5,950 ₸ a month
Nothing leaves your account but the invoice. A Kazakhstani payer withholds 10% on a payment to an individual. You are not a tax agent without a permanent establishment or a subdivision here, so you withhold nothing.
Today, 2:15pm
A local payer withholds – 10%
Tomorrow, 11am
You, with no presence – 0%
Tomorrow, 2pm
They declare it – by 31 March
A year in the life
of a Kazakhstan
contractor’s taxes
1 March
The regime notification
The regime is confirmed by notification, filed by 1 March, even by someone already on it. Miss it and they are moved to the general regime from 1 January, paying on profit instead of 4% of revenue.
15 February,
then 15 August
then 15 August
The half-year declaration
The simplified declaration is filed twice a year, not quarterly. Their tax lands in two lumps, and nothing was withheld in advance to soften either one.
Watch
continuously
continuously
The ceiling on the regime
The simplified declaration runs to 600,000 MCI, about $5.5m. Cross it and they move to the general regime from the start of that month, and pay on profit instead.
31 March,
then 10 April
then 10 April
The self-declaration lands
An unregistered contractor declares foreign income themselves by 31 March and pays by 10 April. Nobody withheld anything, so it arrives at once.
Before you sign
Deadlines are the contractor’s problem. The contract is yours — and since 8 June 2026 one sign of employment in it is enough. The checklist is below.
Are you working
with them legally?
Tick what’s true of your arrangement. The Labour Code has always treated a single sign of employment as enough. What changed on 8 June 2026 is that a contract carrying one is prohibited outright, and counts as employment from the start. Aim for none.
You are 75% or more of everything they earn
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You set their working hours
You set thThey work from premises you provide or designateeir working hours
You supply or fund the tools they work with
You direct how the work is done, not just the result
You set their rate and they don’t negotiate it
They sit inside your structure — manager, reviews
They look like your staff from the outside
Over the 75% line. They can now qualify as a TRADE — if they also have no employees, use their own equipment and work differently from your staff. Same tax either way, but a TRADE contract has to be written and registered with the SEPE, and the duty to tell you sits with them.
Three things to check
before you agree a rate
Whether they registered and under which regime, whether the code still matches the work, and whether they filed by 1 March. All three change the number that matters to them.
Which regime, and is it current
Ask for the registration certificate and the notification of the regime they applied. Both can be checked against the tax register. Seven regimes became three in January 2026, so last year’s answer may not hold.
Does the code match the work
Kazakhstan works by exclusion, and professional services are not on the barred list. What bites is a code that no longer matches the actual work, because the tax authority looks at the activity rather than the registration.
The 1 March notification
The regime is confirmed by notification each year, filed by 1 March, even by someone already on it. Miss it and the general regime applies from 1 January: profit instead of revenue, on the same invoice.
The questions
The nine that come up most when companies hire in Kazakhstan.
Can we hire a Kazakhstani contractor without a Kazakhstani entity?
Yes. A commercial agreement with a registered individual entrepreneur needs nothing from you locally — no registration, no filing, no presence. What you cannot do is run that arrangement like employment: since 8 June 2026 a contract carrying even one sign of employment is prohibited outright.
Who actually pays the tax — us or the contractor?
The contractor, and unusually you do not even withhold. Kazakhstan defines a tax agent as a Kazakhstani entrepreneur, a person in private practice, a resident company, or a foreign company operating through a permanent establishment or a registered subdivision. A foreign company with no presence in Kazakhstan is none of those, so the whole invoice leaves your account and their entire bill lands on their side later. Some competitor pages say you must make pension and medical contributions for Kazakhstani contractors. That is the position for a Kazakhstani payer, not for you.
Our contractor is registered as an individual entrepreneur. Is that enough?
Registration is their side of the arrangement, and it counts. It leaves two questions open. Whether the activity code they registered still matches what they actually do for you, since the tax authority looks at the activity rather than the registration. And whether the relationship reads as employment, which is mostly your decisions rather than their filings. A properly registered entrepreneur on a contract that reads as employment is still a reclassification case.
What is this 4% our contractor keeps mentioning?
The simplified declaration. Four per cent of what they invoice, no deduction for costs, filed twice a year rather than quarterly. It runs up to 600,000 MCI of annual income and carries no social tax, and akimats can set the rate anywhere between 2% and 6%. The alternative is the general regime at 10% of profit — which is not always a choice, because some activities are barred from the simplified declaration entirely.
Our developer says they’re “self-employed”. Is that the same thing?
Probably not. Kazakhstan introduced a genuine self-employed regime on 1 January 2026 — no income tax, a single 4% covering social payments, no reporting. But it runs off a list of forty government-approved activities, caps income at about $2,760 a month, is open only to Kazakhstani citizens and qandas, and records income through a specific mobile app. Most people who say “self-employed” in conversation simply mean they are not registered at all. Worth establishing which, because the two produce very different bills.
Our contractor mentions Astana Hub. Does that apply to us?
Not to an individual contractor. Astana Hub is a technology park whose participants are legal entities, and its incentives — relief on corporate and social tax, extended to 2029 — attach to the company, not to a person invoicing you. If your contractor really is an Astana Hub participant, then you are contracting with a Kazakhstani company, which is a different arrangement with different paperwork.
How do we actually get money to them, and in what currency?
Payments between a Kazakhstani resident and a non-resident may be made in any currency, so most contractors invoice in dollars and are paid to a Kazakhstani bank account. Their bank will usually ask for the contract, the invoice and a payment purpose code before releasing the funds, and the beneficiary name has to match the account exactly or the payment sits in compliance. Allow several banking days. Or Kleos becomes the Contractor of Record. Flat $50 from you, zero from the contractor.
What happens if a contractor is reclassified as an employee?
The arrangement becomes employment for its whole duration: back tax and contributions for the entire period, and the leave never granted. Article 27 of the Labour Code, which lists the signs, has long required only one of them, though in practice inspectors argued the combination. Since 8 June 2026 such a contract is prohibited outright and counts as employment whatever the parties called it. Inspectors also read correspondence, access records and the regularity of payments, not only the contract. Length of engagement therefore matters more here than the size of any single invoice.
Can we hire employees in Kazakhstan, or use an Employer of Record?
Not directly — the employer has to be a Kazakhstani entity or a registered Employer of Record. Budget about 17.5% in employer contributions on top of gross. Minimum wage is 85,000 ₸ a month, about $180. There is no at-will dismissal, and redundancy carries a month’s average salary. Or Kleos becomes that Employer of Record — the legal employer in Kazakhstan, holding the contract, running the payroll in tenge and carrying the contributions, so you need no entity of your own.
General information only, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Figures reflect rules in force in 2026 and the assumptions stated beside each calculation. Kazakhstan replaced its Tax Code on 1 January 2026: seven special tax regimes became three, the simplified declaration moved to 4% of income adjustable locally, and retail tax was abolished. Individual income tax became progressive, at 15% above 8,500 MCI for individuals and 230,000 MCI for entrepreneurs. Article 27 of the Labour Code lists the signs of an employment contract and has long required only one; Law No. 277-VIII of 7 April 2026 added clause 1-1 to article 26, in force 8 June 2026, prohibiting a civil-law contract that carries one. Whether that reaches a payer with no establishment here is a separate question on which we take no position. Social payments sit on a base the contractor declares; figures here assume the statutory minimum. Thresholds are in tenge, against an index of 4,325 and a minimum wage of 85,000: the simplified ceiling at 2,595,000,000, and the progressive steps at 36,762,500 and 994,750,000. Amounts are in US dollars at 470 KZT/$ in August 2026. Confirm your position at kgd.gov.kz or with a qualified Kazakhstani adviser.