Kazakhstan raises its standard VAT rate from 12% to 16%
- Jurisdiction
- Kazakhstan
- Tax
- VAT
- Change type
- Rate change
- Status
- In force
- Impact
- Action required
- Announced
- 18 July 2025
- Effective
- 1 January 2026
- Instrument
- KZ-TAXCODE-214-2025
- Authority
- Adilet — Official Legal Information System of the Republic of Kazakhstan
- Systems
- Tax engine, ERP, Invoicing, POS, Reporting
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
Every VAT payer supplying or importing into Kazakhstan; medicines, medical devices and medical services on the government list, and domestic periodicals, take reduced rates.
Update Kazakhstan VAT rate tables to 16% standard, with 5% on listed medicines and medical services (10% from 1 January 2027) and 10% on domestic periodicals, for periods from 1 January 2026.
Tax engineERPInvoicingPOSReporting
Kazakhstan's new Tax Code (No. 214-VIII ЗРК, signed 18 July 2025, in force 1 January 2026) sets the standard VAT rate at 16% in Article 503(1), up from 12% under Article 422 of the superseded Tax Code No. 120-VI of 2017. Article 503(2) introduces a reduced rate of 5% on medicines, medical devices and medical services on a government-established list, rising to 10% from 1 January 2027, and Article 503(3) retains 10% for domestic periodical publications.
What changed in detail
Kazakhstan’s new Tax Code No. 214-VIII ЗРК, signed 18 July 2025 and in force from 1 January 2026, sets the standard VAT rate at 16% in Article 503(1). The superseded Tax Code No. 120-VI of 2017 set it at 12% in Article 422.
Article 503(2) introduces a reduced rate of 5% from 1 January 2026, rising to 10% from 1 January 2027, on medicines, medical devices and their components, technical assistive devices, and medical services — in each case limited to lists established by the Government. Article 503(3) retains 10% for domestic periodical publications.
What it means
A four-point rise in the standard rate is the largest single move in the issue this record came from, and it has been live since January — so the compliance question is retrospective as much as prospective: returns already filed for 2026 periods either used 16% or they did not.
The reduced rates are list-based, not category-based. “Medicines” is whatever the Government’s list says it is at the time of supply, and the 5% step to 10% on 1 January 2027 is already in the statute — configure it now rather than treating 5% as the settled position.
Proof
Если иное не установлено настоящей статьей, ставка налога на добавленную стоимость составляет 16 процентов и применяется к размеру облагаемого оборота и облагаемого импорта.Unless otherwise established by this article, the value added tax rate is 16 percent and applies to the amount of taxable turnover and taxable imports.
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