Kazakhstan VAT guide

FACTSHEET
Country code	KZ
Tax name	Value Added Tax (VAT) — Налог на добавленную стоимость (НДС)
Tax Authority	Committee of State Revenue, Ministry of Finance (Комитет государственных доходов Министерства финансов РК, KGD)

Overview

Kazakhstan levies Value Added Tax (VAT) — налог на добавленную стоимость (НДС) — under Section 7 (VAT) of the new Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, enacted as Law No. 214-VIII ЗРК of 18 July 2025 and in force since 1 January 2026, superseding the 2017 Code (No. 120-VI). The tax is administered by the Committee of State Revenue (Комитет государственных доходов, KGD) of the Ministry of Finance. ^{[1] [2]}

Currency. All figures in this guide are in the Kazakhstani tenge (KZT, ₸).

Tax period basis. The VAT tax period is the calendar quarter (Article 504). The return is generally due between the 15th of the month following the quarter and the 15th of the second month after it, with payment due by the 25th of the second month following the quarter — see Filing and payment.

Layering. VAT is a single national tax. We found no regional or municipal VAT layer in the Code. (Checked 2026-09-27.)

The one figure to check first. Kazakhstan's standard VAT rate has been 16% since 1 January 2026, up from 12% under the superseded 2017 Code, per Article 503(1) of Tax Code No. 214-VIII ЗРК. At the same time, the VAT registration threshold was halved to 10,000 times the Monthly Calculation Index (MCI) — KZT 43,250,000 for 2026 — from 20,000 times under the old Code. See Recent changes for details.

Registration

Who should register

Article 447 makes two classes of person VAT payers: (1) those placed on the VAT registration record in the taxpayer database, and (2) anyone importing goods into Kazakhstan under EAEU and/or Kazakhstani customs legislation — importers are liable for import VAT regardless of whether they are registered for VAT on domestic turnover. Registration itself happens by one of three routes set out in Article 99(1): voluntary, mandatory, or conditional (for foreign companies selling to individuals online — see Cross-border rules). ^[1]

Not subject to ordinary VAT registration at all (Article 99(3)): state institutions, a resident legal entity's own structural subdivisions, persons in private practice, taxpayers on a special tax regime, and individuals — these fall outside the mandatory/voluntary registration mechanism entirely (special-regime taxpayers have their own rules).

Registration threshold

KZT 43,250,000 for 2026 — 10,000 times the Monthly Calculation Index (MCI) in force on 1 January of the relevant financial year (Article 99(4)(2)), with the 2026 MCI set at KZT 4,325. This halves the threshold set by the superseded 2017 Code, which used a 20,000-times multiplier. ^[1]

The turnover measured against the threshold is the sum of the turnovers described in Article 449(1)(1)-(2), accumulated from the date set by Article 101 — which, depending on the taxpayer's history, can be the date of state registration (a newly formed resident legal entity or a nonresident's branch), the date of registration as an individual entrepreneur, the date of leaving a special tax regime, or simply 1 January of the current calendar year for anyone else (Article 101(2)).

Mandatory registration is triggered by exceeding the threshold within a calendar year (Article 101(1)). The taxpayer must file the tax application within five working days of the date the threshold was exceeded (Article 101(3)) — or, where a single transaction alone would exceed it, before completing that transaction (Article 101(4)). Turnover above the threshold earned before registration is still treated as taxable turnover for the purpose of enforcing liability (Article 101(6)) — crossing the line does not buy a grace period.

Non-resident registration

Kazakhstan has no separate ordinary-registration route for a nonresident with no local presence making B2B supplies — the Kazakhstani business customer self-assesses instead (see Cross-border rules). The one registration route for a nonresident is conditional registration (условная постановка) under Article 102, reserved for a foreign company selling goods or digital/electronic services to individuals over the internet, described in full under Foreign companies selling into Kazakhstan below. A foreign legal entity operating through a branch or representative office instead follows the ordinary resident registration mechanics for that structural subdivision, with the VAT-threshold clock starting from the branch's own state-registration date (Article 101(2)(1)); general (non-VAT) tax registration of the nonresident is separately governed by Article 95.

Tax registration number

Kazakhstan uses a Business Identification Number (BIN) for legal entities, branches, representative offices and certain joint-venture individual entrepreneurs, and an Individual Identification Number (IIN) for natural persons, including sole entrepreneurs acting alone (Tax Code Article 1, definition of "реестры номеров"). The BIN or IIN is the identifier quoted on every счет-фактура. For format, checksum structure and worked examples, see the dedicated Kazakhstan Tax ID guide and the Kazakhstan BIN validator. ^[3]

How to register

Registration is made on the basis of a tax application (налоговое заявление) filed with the tax authority at the taxpayer's place of location, and takes effect from the date that application is submitted (Article 99(5)). After registration, the head of the organisation and/or the person responsible for settlements with the budget must complete an orientation on the electronic-invoice information system (ИС ЭСФ) at the tax authority, and the head undergoes biometric identification in that system on registration or on any change of registration data or change of head (Article 99(6)).

Voluntary registration

Available under Article 100 to any taxpayer not excluded by Article 99(3) and not subject to conditional registration under Article 102, at any point before the mandatory threshold is reached.

Deregistration

A VAT payer is removed from the register (Article 103) on: moving from the ordinary tax regime to a special tax regime (a liquidation-style VAT return must be filed alongside the regime-change notification); cessation of activity or liquidation (effective from the date the cessation/liquidation application is filed, or — for bankruptcy — from the date of removal from the relevant register); reorganisation by merger, accession or division (effective from the date the liquidation tax return and transfer/division act are filed); or the death of an individual entrepreneur. These provisions do not apply to a taxpayer subject to conditional registration (Article 103(3)).

Group registration

Not available. We found no group-VAT or VAT-consolidation provision in the new Tax Code's VAT section. (Checked 2026-09-27.)

Rates

Rate	Legal basis	Applies to
16% standard	Art. 503(1)	taxable turnover and taxable imports generally
5% reduced (2026), 10% from 1 January 2027	Art. 503(2)	medicines (with listed exceptions), medical devices and their components, technical assistive/compensatory aids, and licensed medical services
10% reduced	Art. 503(3)	domestic periodical print publications
0% zero	Art. 503(4), Chapter 47	exports and other zero-rated turnover under Chapter 47 of the Code

The 16% rate took effect 1 January 2026, up from 12% under the superseded 2017 Code. The 5%→10% step for medicines and medical devices is a scheduled future change already written into Article 503(2) itself, not a separate announcement — it takes effect 1 January 2027. ^[1] See Recent changes.

Announced future rates

The 10% medicines/medical-devices step (from 1 January 2027) described above is the only forward-dated rate change we found in the Code as at 2026-09-27. We found no other announced future change to the 16%, 10% or 0% rates. (Checked 2026-09-27.)

Cross-border rules

Foreign companies selling into Kazakhstan — B2B and B2C

Kazakhstan answers these two very differently.

B2B — the Kazakhstani buyer self-assesses. Where a nonresident, on a paid basis, performs works or renders services with a Kazakhstani place of supply (see Place of supply), and a Kazakhstani VAT payer acquires them, that acquisition is itself taxable turnover of the Kazakhstani buyer — "turnover from the acquisition of works, services from a nonresident" — under Article 454(1). The buyer self-assesses the VAT and issues itself the invoice under the Chapter 50 invoicing rules (Article 454(2)), applying the Article 503(1) rate to the value acquired (Article 502(4)). Article 454(3) carves out several cases where no such self-assessed turnover arises — for example where the cost is already folded into the customs value of imported goods on which import VAT was paid and is non-refundable, or where the services are exempt under Article 474.

B2C — the foreign seller conditionally registers. A foreign company selling goods by e-commerce, or services in electronic form, to a Kazakhstani individual, is a VAT payer once conditionally registered under Article 102, and computes VAT under the dedicated Section 21 regime (Articles 826-827) rather than the ordinary rules. Conditional registration is triggered — no turnover threshold applies — by the first payment made by an individual buyer, once any one of four nexus tests in Article 826(2) is met: the buyer's place of residence, the location of the bank or e-money operator used to pay, the buyer's registered network address, or the country code of the phone number used, each pointing to Kazakhstan. The foreign company need not issue invoices for these sales (Article 826(3)), computes VAT at the Article 503(1) standard rate on the value sold, converting foreign-currency amounts to tenge at the official rate set for the last calendar day before the date the tax is paid (Article 827(1)), and must pay quarterly by the 25th of the second month following the quarter of sale (Article 827(1)). VAT paid under this regime is not refundable (Article 827(3)).

Marketplace and platform deemed-supplier liability

Kazakhstan's mechanism puts the registration duty directly on the foreign seller operating via an internet platform (Article 99(8), Article 826), rather than creating a separate deemed-supplier liability for the platform operator itself. We found no distinct marketplace/platform-operator liability provision beyond that seller-side conditional-registration route. (Checked 2026-09-27.)

Imports and exports

Imports from outside the EAEU are assessed VAT at the customs border under EAEU and/or Kazakhstani customs legislation, based on the customs value (taxable import per Article 451). Exports are zero-rated under Chapter 47 / Article 503(4), and a failure to substantiate the zero rate under that chapter's procedure reverts the turnover to the standard rate.

Imports from EAEU member states — self-assessed, not collected at the border

Imports from Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are not taxed at the Kazakhstani customs border. Instead, under Article 530, the importer must file a заявление о ввозе товаров и уплате косвенных налогов (application on the importation of goods and payment of indirect taxes) — on paper (four copies) and electronically, or electronically alone — together with a bank statement evidencing payment, transport/shipping documents, the underlying counterparty invoice or equivalent document, and the contract, no later than the 20th of the month following the month the goods were taken onto account (or, for leasing, the month of the lease payment). VAT on EAEU imports is due by that same 20th-of-the-month date (Article 530(5)) — a materially different deadline from the ordinary VAT return cycle described below. A later increase in the price of imported goods re-triggers the same declaration and payment obligation on the difference (Article 530(10)).

Reverse charge on imported services

Kazakhstan has no separately named "reverse charge" mechanism — the effect is achieved through the Article 454 self-assessment on acquiring works/services from a nonresident, described above, which functions the same way: the Kazakhstani VAT-payer buyer accounts for the tax rather than the foreign supplier.

Place of supply

Goods (Article 459(1)): Kazakhstan is the place of supply where transportation of the goods begins in Kazakhstan, or — where the goods are not transported — where they are handed over to the recipient in Kazakhstan.

Services (Article 459(2)): a cascading set of tests — services connected with immovable property located in Kazakhstan; services connected with movable property actually performed in Kazakhstan (installation, assembly, repair, maintenance); culture, entertainment, science, art, education, physical culture or sport services actually performed in Kazakhstan; a long list of specifically named services (IP-rights transfer, software maintenance, internet-resource access, consulting, audit, engineering, design, marketing, legal, accounting, advertising, information services, staff provision, movable-property leasing other than vehicles, and others) where the buyer carries on business in Kazakhstan; and, as a catch-all, any other service where the performing taxpayer carries on business in Kazakhstan.

Invoice requirements

Mandatory content

The Kazakhstani VAT invoice is the счет-фактура (schet-faktura), issued through the state's Information System of Electronic Invoices (Информационная система электронных счетов-фактур, ИС ЭСФ). The Tax Code sets the issuance obligation and the exceptions to electronic form; the exact field-by-field content and layout of the ЭСФ form is prescribed by order of the authorised body (the Ministry of Finance), not laid out article-by-article in the Code itself — this guide states the statutory rules the Code itself carries and does not reproduce the ministerial form. ^[1]

Every VAT payer must issue a счет-фактура on making a taxable supply (Article 491(1)), with narrow exceptions where no invoice is required at all — retail sales settled by cash-register receipt or payment terminal, sales to individuals settled by e-money, utility/communications payments to individuals collected via a bank or postal operator, passenger rail/air tickets, gratuitous transfers to individuals, and the financial operations exempted under Article 477 (Article 491(2)). The recipient's right to demand an invoice within 15 calendar days of the supply (Article 491(4)-(5)) does not extend to every one of those exceptions — it covers only receipt/payment-terminal and e-money sales to individuals (491(2)(1)-(2)), the goods described in Article 491(3), and passenger tickets (491(2)(4)). It does not cover utility/communications payments collected via a bank or postal operator, gratuitous transfers, or the Article 477 financial operations.

Technical format — mandatory electronic issuance (ESF)

Article 492(1) makes electronic issuance through ИС ЭСФ the default for every VAT payer. A paper invoice is permitted only in four cases: no public telecommunications network at the taxpayer's location; a confirmed technical fault in ИС ЭСФ, published on the authorised body's website; suspension of invoice issuance under Article 88; or a declared state of emergency. The entry-into-ИС-ЭСФ duty is not uniform across those cases: after a confirmed technical fault or an Article 88 suspension, the paper invoice must be entered into ИС ЭСФ within 15 calendar days of the exception ending; after a state of emergency, within 30 calendar days. Where the exception is simply the absence of a public telecommunications network, Article 492(1) sets no entry deadline at all. Amounts are stated in tenge, with foreign-currency invoicing permitted only for production-sharing-agreement transactions and specified zero-rated export/transport turnovers (Article 492(3)). An electronic invoice is certified with an electronic digital signature; a paper one is certified by the signatures of the head and chief accountant (plus seal, where the entity is required to have one) or, for an individual entrepreneur, the entrepreneur's own signature and seal if held (Article 492(6)). See E-invoicing status for the mandate's scope and history.

Issuance deadline

No earlier than the date of supply and no later than 15 calendar days after it (Article 493(1)). A monthly-summary exception (by the 20th of the following month) applies to continuous-supply sectors — electricity, heat, water and gas; communal services; communications services; rail freight and air passenger/baggage/cargo carriage; freight-forwarding and commission-type contracts; trunk-pipeline transport; lending/microcredit services; taxable banking operations; year-or-longer contracts with the diplomatic missions and personnel named in Article 131(1); and several other named cases (Article 493(2)). Export shipments under the customs export procedure get 20 calendar days (Article 493(3)).

Credit and debit notes — additional and corrected invoices

Kazakhstan's two correction documents map to Russia-style corrective/corrected pairs, and — as elsewhere — using the wrong one matters:

	Дополнительный счет-фактура (additional)	Исправленный счет-фактура (corrected)
Used for (Arts. 500, 499)	A change in the value of turnover already invoiced (a Art. 464 adjustment), or a breach of the Article 213 transfer-pricing documentation requirement	Fixing a mistake — content changes/additions or error corrections that do not replace the supplier or recipient
Effect	A new document layered on top of the original invoice, stating the correction sum and (for an electronic invoice) the date the adjustment turnover occurred	The original invoice is cancelled — along with any additional invoices issued against it — and replaced by the corrected copy
Recipient action (electronic)	VAT-payer recipient must confirm or reject; a non-VAT-payer recipient's silence for 10 calendar days is deemed confirmation	Same confirm/reject mechanic for a VAT-payer recipient; same 10-day deemed-confirmation rule otherwise

An invoice can also simply be withdrawn (Article 501) to void it outright, subject to the same recipient confirm/reject mechanic.

Currency and language

Invoice values are stated in tenge, with the foreign-currency exceptions at Article 492(3) noted above. We found no separate statutory list of accepted invoice languages in the VAT chapter itself. (Checked 2026-09-27.)

Retention

The VAT chapter does not itself restate a retention period distinct from the Code's general document-retention rules for tax purposes; we have not confirmed a VAT-specific figure and note it as unconfirmed rather than state one.

E-invoicing status

As at 27 September 2026, Kazakhstan runs a mandatory, near-universal e-invoicing regime with no PDF/UBL choice of format — invoices are drawn up inside the state system, not exchanged as files between counterparties' own software.

• System. The Information System of Electronic Invoices (ИС ЭСФ), run by the Committee of State Revenue.
• Status and scope. Mandatory for every VAT payer's счет-фактура issuance (Article 492(1)), covering B2B and B2G supply documentation; B2C is generally served by cash-register receipts rather than invoices (see the Article 491(2) exceptions above), and the foreign-company e-commerce/digital-services regime (Articles 826-827) does not require invoices for B2C sales at all.
• Paper exceptions are narrow and temporary, and every paper invoice must still land in ИС ЭСФ within a fixed window — see Technical format above.
• Onboarding is compulsory at registration: the head of the company (or the person responsible for budget settlements) must be briefed on ИС ЭСФ, and the head is biometrically identified in the system, at the point of VAT registration (Article 99(6)).
• A separate goods-movement tracking layer exists on top of invoicing for listed traceable goods, enforced through Article 280-1 of the Code on Administrative Offences — Article 280-1(5) specifically penalises the absence of shipping documents stamped by the state revenue bodies when goods on the tracked list are exported from Kazakhstan — a parallel control to, not a substitute for, ИС ЭСФ.

Filing and payment

Filing frequency

Quarterly. The VAT tax period is the calendar quarter (Article 504).

Return due date

Not earlier than the 15th of the month following the quarter, and not later than the 15th of the second month following the quarter (Article 505(1)) — i.e., a filing window rather than a single fixed date, unless the statute provides otherwise for a specific case. A liquidation VAT return is required on deregistration (Article 505(2)).

Payment due date and method

No later than the 25th of the second month following the quarter for VAT payable on ordinary turnover and self-assessed nonresident-acquisition VAT (Article 506(1)); import VAT follows the customs-legislation timetable for non-EAEU imports, and the 20th-of-the-following-month rule for EAEU imports (Article 530(5)); on deregistration, any VAT shown in the liquidation return is due within 10 calendar days of filing it (Article 506(1)(3)).

Late-payment interest (пеня)

Пеня accrues for each day of delay on unpaid tax, at a multiple of the National Bank's base rate in force on each day of delay (Article 5(2) of the Code): 1.25× for an ordinary taxpayer, 0.65× for a participant in horizontal monitoring. It runs from the day after the payment due date, including the day of payment. ^[1]

Refunds

Where the calculation in Article 502 produces a negative result — input VAT allowed for offset exceeding output VAT charged — that excess is, by the Code's own description, "an excess of the VAT allowed for offset over the accrued tax" (Article 502(3)(2)), available to be carried forward and offset against future output VAT. We have not confirmed a specific cash-refund timetable or a non-resident refund scheme distinct from the ordinary offset mechanism, and we mark that as unconfirmed rather than state a figure we have not sourced.

Exemptions

Exempt supplies

Article 474 lists Kazakhstan's VAT-exempt turnover, cross-referring to dedicated articles for the largest categories: Article 475 (international-transport-related turnover), Article 476 (land and residential buildings), Article 477 (other financial operations — securities, derivatives, insurance/reinsurance, UAPF asset management, assignment of loan claims and similar listed financial services), and Article 478 (property transferred into financial lease). Article 474 itself also names, among others: banknotes and coins of the national currency; lottery winnings; processing/repair of goods admitted under the EAEU inward-processing customs procedure; condominium-management services; loan and microcredit interest (Article 474(11)); qualifying disability-inclusive employer turnover (51%+ disabled staff by headcount and payroll, 10+ disabled workers — a threshold that must be met in the sale period and the four preceding tax periods, Article 474(7)); warranty repair and maintenance; investment gold bullion traded on an exchange or through a listed class of counterparty; inbound and domestic tourism operator services; goods under the duty-free trade customs procedure; scrap and waste of non-ferrous and ferrous metals; religious rites and objects; funeral, cemetery and crematorium services; and a broad band of education, culture, museum, library and theatre/philharmonic services. ^[1]

Exempt is not zero-rated

As elsewhere, this distinction carries real cost. A zero-rated (0%) supply under Article 503(4)/Chapter 47 is taxable at 0% and preserves the right to offset input VAT. An exempt supply under Articles 474-479 does not — no VAT is charged, but input VAT attributable to the exempt turnover is not available for offset. Get this wrong and the deduction position is wrong in both directions.

Special regimes

Taxpayers on a special tax regime are excluded from ordinary VAT registration under Article 99(3)(4) — they sit outside the general VAT system by design rather than through a specific exemption, and moving off a special regime is itself a mandatory-registration trigger under Article 101(2)(3).

Offences and penalties

Kazakhstan keeps VAT-relevant offences in the separate Code on Administrative Offences (Кодекс Республики Казахстан об административных правонарушениях, No. 235-V of 5 July 2014), not in the Tax Code itself. ^[4]

Offences and penalties, side by side

Conduct	Legal basis	Penalty
Failure to file tax reporting (e.g. a VAT return) on time — first breach	Art. 272(1) КоАП	Warning
…repeated within a year	Art. 272(2) КоАП	Fine: 15 MCI (individuals) / 30 MCI (small business, notaries, lawyers) / 45 MCI (medium business) / 70 MCI (large business)
Concealing an object of taxation from tax reporting	Art. 275(1) КоАП	200% of the tax due on the concealed object
…repeated within a year	Art. 275(2) КоАП	300% of the tax due on the concealed object
Understating tax due in a return, calculation, or EAEU import declaration	Art. 278(1) КоАП	10 MCI (individuals); 20–80% of the understated tax, scaled by business size
Tax agent's failure to withhold tax due	Art. 279(1) КоАП	20–50% of the unwithheld amount, scaled by business size
Tax agent's failure to remit withheld tax	Art. 279(2) КоАП	5–20 MCI, scaled by business size
Issuing a fictitious счет-фактура — one from an unregistered issuer, or for work/goods never actually supplied	Art. 280 КоАП	100–300% of the VAT stated on the invoice, scaled by business size
Failure to issue an invoice electronically — first breach	Art. 280-1(1) КоАП	Warning
…repeated within a year	Art. 280-1(2) КоАП	40–150 MCI, scaled by business size
Issuing an electronic invoice late — first breach	Art. 280-1(3) КоАП	Warning
…repeated within a year	Art. 280-1(4) КоАП	20–100 MCI, scaled by business size

MCI in the table is the Monthly Calculation Index — KZT 4,325 for 2026. "Small/medium/large business" tracks Kazakhstan's Entrepreneurial Code size classes.

Offences distinct from penalties. Kazakhstan's own statute already separates the two: Articles 272, 275, 278 and 279 are administrative-offence provisions carrying a fine or warning, while conduct crossing into tax evasion or large-scale concealment moves into the Criminal Code, which this guide does not state figures for as we have not confirmed those against the Criminal Code itself.

Frequently asked questions

Kazakhstan's VAT registration threshold changed in 2026 — what is it now, and does it apply to me?

It was halved. Article 99(4)(2) of the new Tax Code (No. 214-VIII ЗРК, in force 1 January 2026) sets the mandatory-registration threshold at 10,000 times the Monthly Calculation Index (MCI) in force on 1 January of the year — down from 20,000 times under the superseded 2017 Code. With the 2026 MCI at KZT 4,325, the threshold is KZT 43,250,000, measured cumulatively across the calendar year from the turnover described in Article 449(1)(1)-(2).

You must file a tax application to register within five working days of crossing the threshold (Article 101(3)), and turnover above the threshold earned before you register is still treated as taxable turnover for enforcing liability (Article 101(6)). Businesses that sat comfortably below the old 20,000-MCI line but above the new 10,000-MCI line are caught for the first time in 2026 — re-test your position rather than carrying last year's answer forward.

I run a foreign SaaS or e-commerce business with no office in Kazakhstan — do I have to register and charge Kazakhstani VAT?

It depends on who is buying, and Kazakhstan splits this cleanly.

Selling to a Kazakhstani business (B2B): you generally do not register. The Kazakhstani buyer, if it is a VAT payer, self-assesses VAT on the turnover from acquiring your works or services under Article 454 — functionally a reverse charge — and issues itself the invoice.

Selling to a Kazakhstani individual (B2C), whether goods by e-commerce or services in electronic form: you must undergo conditional registration under Article 102 once any one of four tests in Article 826(2) is met — the buyer's residence, bank or e-money operator, network address, or phone country code pointing to Kazakhstan. There is no turnover threshold for this route; the trigger is the first payment received from a Kazakhstani individual (Article 102(4)). Once registered, you compute VAT at the standard rate on what you sold, converting foreign-currency amounts at the official rate set for the last calendar day before the date the tax is paid (Article 827(1)), pay it quarterly by the 25th of the second month after the quarter, are not required to issue invoices for these sales, and cannot recover the VAT once paid (Article 827).

My supplier gave me a paper invoice instead of an electronic one — is that valid?

Only in narrow cases. Article 492(1) makes the electronic счет-фактура, issued through the state's Information System of Electronic Invoices (ИС ЭСФ), the default for every VAT payer. A paper invoice is permitted only where there is no public telecommunications network at the supplier's location, the ЭСФ system itself has a confirmed technical fault, invoice issuance has been suspended under Article 88, or a state of emergency is in force. The entry deadline then depends on the case: after a confirmed technical fault or an Article 88 suspension, the paper invoice must be entered into the electronic system within 15 calendar days of the exception ending; after a state of emergency, within 30 days; where the exception is the absence of a public telecommunications network, the Code sets no entry deadline.

Outside those cases, a paper-only invoice does not satisfy Article 492, and issuing one where electronic issuance was required is itself an administrative offence under Article 280-1 of the Code on Administrative Offences — a warning for a first breach, a fine on repetition. Ask for the electronic invoice, or at minimum confirm the paper copy will be entered into ИС ЭСФ within the statutory window.

I imported goods from Russia and nobody charged me VAT at the border — what do I still owe?

A filing and a payment, on your own initiative. Imports from the other EAEU states — Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan — are not assessed VAT at the Kazakhstani customs border; instead you self-declare to the tax authority. Article 530 requires you to file a заявление о ввозе товаров и уплате косвенных налогов (application on the importation of goods and payment of indirect taxes), with a supporting document set including the bank statement evidencing payment, transport documents, invoices and the underlying contract, no later than the 20th of the month following the month you took the goods onto account — and to have paid the VAT by that same date.

This is a materially different date from the ordinary VAT filing cycle, and the 20th-of-the-month deadline is easy to miss if you are used to import VAT being collected at the border, as it is for goods from outside the EAEU.

Important websites

Site	Purpose
Committee of State Revenue (KGD) — main site	Rates, guidance, forms, contacts
KGD — Taxpayer search (BIN/IIN lookup)	Verify a counterparty's BIN or IIN
Kazakhstan BIN validator — Lookuptax	Validate a Business Identification Number
Adilet ИПС — Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (K2500000214)	Full statutory text of the Tax Code
Adilet ИПС — Code on Administrative Offences (K1400000235)	Penalty provisions for tax and invoicing breaches
E-Government portal (egov.kz)	Business and taxpayer registration services

We have not independently confirmed a live public URL for the ИС ЭСФ e-invoice portal itself beyond its statutory description in the Tax Code; readers should reach it through the KGD site above.

Recent changes

• 2026-01-01 — the standard VAT rate rose from 12% to 16% under the new Tax Code No. 214-VIII ЗРК (Article 503(1)), and the mandatory VAT registration threshold halved to 10,000 × MCI (KZT 43,250,000 for 2026) under Article 99(4)(2). (adilet.zan.kz) — see event records: VAT rate and registration threshold
• 2027-01-01 (scheduled) — the reduced VAT rate on medicines, medical devices and listed assistive aids rises from 5% to 10% under Article 503(2) of the same Code. (adilet.zan.kz) — see event record

Reference links

• Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 214-VIII ЗРК of 18 July 2025 — Adilet ИПС
• Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offences No. 235-V of 5 July 2014 — Adilet ИПС
• Committee of State Revenue, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan
• KGD — Taxpayer/BIN/IIN search service
• Lookuptax — Kazakhstan Tax ID guide (IIN & BIN)
• Lookuptax — Official links to check VAT numbers worldwide
• Lookuptax — E-invoicing status and the networks worldwide