Annual Compliance in Kazakhstan

Annual compliance in Kazakhstan is not something businesses can afford to treat as a background task anymore. The regulatory framework here has become notably more precise, with deadlines enforced consistently across corporate tax, VAT, payroll, and statistical reporting obligations. 

Falling behind on even one filing can trigger financial penalties and raise red flags with the very institutions your business depends on for growth. Read on for a full compliance checklist covering every key obligation across the calendar year.

Key Takeaways

• Kazakhstan’s compliance calendar is dense. Most major filings cluster around the March 31 deadline.
• Miss one filing and your SRC risk rating drops, which can suspend your VAT invoice rights entirely.
• CIT sits at 20% for most entities. Banks and gambling businesses move to 25% from 2026.
• JSCs always require a mandatory audit. Large LLPs crossing 3,000,000 MCI in revenue do too.
• Late penalties accrue from day one at roughly 0.052% daily, with concealed income fines reaching 200%.

Who Must File Annual Compliance Reports in Kazakhstan?

If you run a legally registered business entity in Kazakhstan, annual compliance is not optional. The rules cover a broad range of entity types, and the obligations vary depending on how your business is structured.

• Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP): The most common business vehicle in Kazakhstan, fully subject to CIT, VAT, payroll, and annual financial reporting requirements.
• Joint-Stock Companies (JSC): Required to file financial statements, undergo mandatory audit, and meet all tax obligations, including advance CIT payments.
• Branches and Representative Offices of Foreign Companies: Treated as tax residents for activities conducted in Kazakhstan, subject to CIT on income attributable to the permanent establishment.
• Individual Entrepreneurs (IE): Depending on size, subject to the simplified declaration regime (3% of revenue) or general tax regime; annual declarations are mandatory either way.
• Sole Traders under the Simplified Regime: Must file semi-annual simplified declarations (Form 910.00) and annual income summaries to the State Revenue Committee.
• Agricultural Producers: Subject to a reduced CIT rate of 6% on qualifying income; an annual CIT return is still required regardless of the preferential rate.
• Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Participants: May enjoy CIT exemptions, but financial reporting and confirmation filings with the relevant SEZ authority remain mandatory.

Exemptions: Government institutions are exempt from corporate income tax. State secondary education organizations have been removed from the strict list of “non-taxpayers”.

Instead of a full exemption, a reduced CIT rate of 5% in 2026 and 10% from January 1, 2027, will apply to organizations operating in the social sector, including schools, kindergartens, and hospitals.

Annual Compliance: Key Deadlines 

Kazakhstan operates on a calendar tax year running from January 1 to December 31. Most annual filings cluster in the first quarter of the following year, so your Q4 preparation matters more than you might think.

1. Annual Return / Confirmation Statement

Kazakhstan does not use a standalone annual return in the way some common-law jurisdictions do, but every registered entity must file an annual CIT declaration or equivalent and update any registered information changes through the egov.kz portal. This keeps the entity in good standing with the Business Register.

• Purpose: Confirms the entity is active, discloses annual taxable income, and reconciles advance CIT payments already made throughout the year.
• Due Date: 31 March of the year following the reporting year. A 30-day extension is available on written request to the State Revenue Committee.
• Filing Fee: No government fee for standard CIT return filing. Statistical and registry updates through egov.kz are also free of charge.
• Online Portal: All filings go through the Cabinet of the Taxpayer (cabinet.salyk.kz) using a valid Electronic Digital Signature (EDS). The EDS must be renewed every two years.
• Steps: Log into cabinet.salyk.kz, select the relevant tax return form (Form 100.00 for general CIT), complete all sections, attach supporting schedules, and submit electronically before the deadline.
• Supporting Schedules: Depending on entity type, you may need to attach depreciation schedules, related-party transaction disclosures, and transfer pricing documentation.

2. Corporate Income Tax Return

CIT is the primary direct tax on business profits in Kazakhstan, calculated on a calendar-year basis. The rate structure is clean and predictable for most businesses, though the new Tax Code, effective January 1, 2026, introduces some important rate changes worth knowing about.

• Standard CIT Rate: 20% on aggregate annual income less allowable deductions, assessed on a calendar-year basis for all resident legal entities.
• Reduced Rates: 6% for qualifying agricultural cooperatives and 3% for for agricultural and aquaculture producers.
• 2026 Rate Changes: The new Tax Code introduces 25% for banks and gambling businesses.
• Advance Payments: Entities with annual income exceeding KZT 600,000 x MCI must make monthly CIT advance payments by the 25th of each month.
• Threshold for Advance Payments: Companies below this threshold are exempt from monthly advance payments and settle the full CIT balance by the annual filing deadline instead.
• e-Filing Procedure: File Form 100.00 via cabinet.salyk.kz using your EDS. The portal allows draft-saving and schedule attachment, and submission confirmation is issued automatically on filing.
• Payment Schedule: Final CIT payment is due by 10 April of the year following the reporting period, giving you 10 additional days after the return submission deadline.
• Concealed Income Penalty: If the SRC determines income was intentionally concealed, fines can reach 200% of the concealed amount, making accurate filing essential.

3. Audited or Unaudited Financial Statements

Kazakhstan has a tiered financial reporting system, and which standard applies depends on your entity’s size, legal form, and sector. Getting this wrong can trigger a regulatory notice even if your tax return is otherwise perfect.

• Mandatory Audit Triggers: All JSCs are required to have their financial statements audited annually, regardless of size. Large LLPs meeting two or more of the thresholds below are also subject to mandatory audit.
• Public-Interest Entities: Banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and securities market participants are always subject to mandatory audit and must apply full IFRS regardless of headcount or revenue.
• IFRS (Full): Mandatory for large business enterprises, JSCs, public-interest companies, and financial institutions. Statements must be prepared and published in Kazakh or Russian.
• IFRS for SMEs: Available for medium-sized enterprises and state enterprises that do not qualify as public-interest entities, simplifying some disclosure requirements while maintaining international comparability.
• National Financial Reporting Standards (NFRS): Small enterprises under 250 employees and below the revenue threshold may use NFRS, a simplified national standard developed by the Ministry of Finance.
• Submission Deadline: Annual financial statements must be submitted to the State Revenue Committee electronically via cabinet.salyk.kz by 31 March of the following year.
• Public Disclosure: Listed companies and public-interest entities must additionally publish their IFRS statements on the public DFO portal (depositary.kz).

4. Beneficial Ownership and KYC Declarations

Kazakhstan has been steadily tightening its beneficial ownership disclosure requirements as part of a broader OECD-aligned transparency push. This is one area where many foreign-owned businesses get caught off guard.

• Register Requirement: All legal entities must maintain an up-to-date internal register of beneficial owners, defined as any natural person who ultimately owns or controls 25% or more of shares or voting rights.
• Universal Declaration System: From 2025, this covers all Kazakh tax residents, including heads and founders of legal entities. All must file Form 250.00 (one-time assets and liabilities declaration) and Form 270.00 (annual income and property declaration).
• Update Frequency: Any change in beneficial ownership must be reported to the relevant state authority within 30 days of the change occurring. Year-end confirmation should be included in annual filings.
• KYC for Founders and Directors: Banks and financial institutions require annual KYC refreshes. Any change in director or shareholder information must be notified to the Business Register via egov.kz promptly.
• Form 270.00 Deadline: Filed electronically by 15 September of the year following the reporting period; tax due is settled by 25 September.
• Penalties for Non-Filing: Late submission of the universal declaration attracts a first-time warning, followed by a fine of 15 MCI (approximately KZT 58,980) for repeat violations. Failure to disclose foreign assets or bank accounts triggers a fine of 100 MCI (approximately KZT 393,200).
• Travel Ban Risk: From 2026, executives of entities with unresolved tax debts exceeding three months can face a temporary travel ban under new enforcement measures in the Tax Code.

5. Payroll, VAT, and Other Periodic Filings

Beyond annual obligations, Kazakhstan has a busy monthly and quarterly compliance calendar that keeps your finance and HR teams occupied throughout the year. Missing any one of these recurring filings can trigger automated desk audit notifications from the SRC.

Monthly and quarterly obligations:

• VAT returns: Standard VAT rate is 16%. VAT Form 300.00 is filed quarterly, with deadlines set by the updated filing rules.
• VAT payment: Payment timing follows the return cycle, with payment deadlines referenced alongside the forms.
• Payroll withholding: File withholding and payroll-related remittances based on employer obligations and payroll periods.
• Import and export: Customs and trade reporting apply when goods cross borders, often linked to VAT and documentation. 

Penalties for Late or Inaccurate Filings in Kazakhstan

Penalties rarely stop at a single fine, since late filing can cascade into audits and blocked transactions. The cleanest strategy is to treat deadlines as operational controls, not paperwork.

• Late Filing Interest: Calculated at 1.25 times the National Bank base rate per day of delay. With the base rate at 15.25% per annum from December 2024, this works out to roughly 0.052% per day on outstanding amounts.
• Understatement of Tax Liabilities: A general fine of 80% of the understated tax applies to large businesses, with reduced rates for small and medium-sized enterprises.
• Advance CIT Understatement: A 20% administrative fine applies if advance CIT payments are understated by more than 20% compared to the finally declared CIT amount.
• Concealed Taxable Income: Fine of up to 200% of the concealed amount, making this the most severe penalty in Kazakhstan’s tax enforcement toolkit.
• Late Universal Declaration: First offense results in a formal warning. Second offense within 12 months incurs a fine of 15 MCI (approximately KZT 58,980 in 2025 terms).
• Undisclosed Foreign Assets: Failure to declare foreign bank accounts or overseas property in Form 270.00 incurs a fine of 100 MCI (approximately KZT 393,200).
• VAT Invoice Suspension: Repeated non-compliance can trigger suspension of the right to issue electronic VAT invoices, which effectively halts business operations for VAT-registered entities.
• Loss of Good Standing: Companies with unresolved tax debts may be flagged in the SRC’s online risk register as medium or high risk, directly affecting banking relationships, government contracts, and license renewals.
• Strike-Off Risk: Entities that fail to file for extended periods without formal dormancy notification can be subject to forced liquidation following a tax audit.
• Executive Travel Ban (from 2026): Executives of entities with tax debts unresolved for more than three months beyond the established threshold may face a temporary travel restriction under the new Tax Code.

Annual Compliance Cost Breakdown

Compliance in Kazakhstan is not prohibitively expensive, but it carries real costs that vary by entity size and complexity. Building these into your annual budget avoids unpleasant surprises, especially when audit fees arrive at year-end.

60-Day Compliance Sprint Checklist

The following sprint assumes your fiscal year ends December 31, so the 60-day window runs from January 1 through the end of February, setting you up comfortably ahead of the March 31 deadline cluster. Work through it in sequence.

Regulatory and Compliance Obligations

Running a business in Kazakhstan means operating inside a framework where multiple regulators each own a piece of your compliance calendar. Miss one piece, and the ripple effects move fast across the rest of your obligations.

• State Revenue Committee (SRC): The primary tax authority overseeing CIT, VAT, payroll taxes, withholding tax, and the universal declaration system. All tax returns, payments, and e-filings go through cabinet.salyk.kz under SRC jurisdiction.
• Ministry of Finance: Governs financial reporting standards, sets IFRS and NFRS application requirements, and oversees the depositary portal (depositary.kz) where public-interest entities publish audited statements.
• Bureau of National Statistics: Requires periodic statistical reports from registered entities, including workforce data, production output, and financial indicators, on schedules that vary by form type and business sector.
• National Bank of Kazakhstan: Regulates foreign currency transactions, sets the official KZT exchange rates used for income and asset conversion in tax filings, and oversees compliance for financial sector entities.
• Sector-Specific Regulators: Industries such as banking, insurance, energy, pharmaceuticals, and construction have their own licensing and reporting requirements layered on top of standard tax obligations, each with independent renewal cycles and penalty regimes.
• Business Register (egov.kz): All changes to entity structure, director appointments, shareholder updates, and beneficial ownership information must be notified here within 30 days of the change, with failure to do so triggering fines and potential audit flags.
• Interconnected risk: A missed payroll report affects your SRC risk rating, which can then complicate your VAT invoice issuance rights, which then affects your ability to transact with partners who need compliant invoices for their own input tax claims.

Managing Kazakhstan compliance alongside other jurisdictions adds up fast. Commenda’s platform centralizes entity management, deadline tracking, and tax filings across 70 countries. Nothing falls through the cracks.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Even experienced finance teams make recurring errors in Kazakhstan’s compliance cycle. These five come up most often, and each one is entirely preventable with the right process in place.

• Wrong fiscal year dates: Kazakhstan runs strictly January 1 to December 31. Foreign entities reporting on a different internal cycle often submit tax calculations that reflect their own year, not the statutory one. Keep a separate Kazakhstan ledger aligned to the calendar year.
• Missing director signatures: All filings on cabinet.salyk.kz need a valid Electronic Digital Signature (EDS). EDS certificates expire every two years, and most entities only discover the lapse on filing day. Add an EDS expiry check to your Q4 calendar.
• Under-reported intercompany income: Management fees, royalties, and related-party loan interest are taxable in Kazakhstan. The SRC’s automated system cross-checks withholding tax filings against CIT returns and flags gaps quickly. Document everything under transfer pricing rules.
• Late beneficial ownership updates: The Business Register notification window after any ownership change is just 30 days. During restructurings, this deadline slips easily. Assign one person to own the BO register maintenance and tie it directly to your entity change process.
• Wrong currency conversion rates: All foreign-currency income must be converted to KZT using the National Bank’s official rate on the transaction date, not the filing date or year-end rate. Using average or year-end rates is a common error that creates material income discrepancies.

How Commenda Simplifies Annual Compliance and Tax Filings

Managing Kazakhstan compliance manually works fine with one entity and a local accountant. Add a second jurisdiction or a subsidiary, and the spreadsheets, email chains, and disconnected portals start creating real risk. 

Commenda covers 70 countries through one platform, so your team stays proactive instead of perpetually catching up.

• Centralized deadline tracking: Every CIT deadline, VAT return, payroll window, and BO update requirement sits in one auto-populated dashboard with built-in reminders.
• Pre-filled forms: Entity data already in the system populates your filings automatically, cutting manual entry and the errors that come with it.
• Files across 70 jurisdictions: Tax registrations, accounting, and reporting handled across all your markets in one place.
• Entity and ownership management: Director changes and shareholder updates are tracked and flagged, so Kazakhstan’s 30-day notification window never slips.
• Bring your own accountant: Invite your existing Kazakhstan advisors into the platform to upload documents and manage filings without switching systems.
• Audit-ready documentation: Every filing and workflow action is timestamped and stored, so SRC queries never catch you off guard.
• Cuts admin time by up to 80%: Real-time compliance metrics across all entities mean less coordination, fewer surprises, and more time on work that actually moves the business forward.

Ready to take Kazakhstan compliance off your plate? Book a demo with Commenda and see how teams managing multi-country entities get it done in a fraction of the time.

FAQs: Annual Compliance in Kazakhstan

1. What happens if my company misses the annual return deadline in Kazakhstan, and how quickly do late-filing penalties start?

Penalties begin the day after the March 31 deadline, accruing at roughly 0.052% daily on outstanding tax amounts.

2. Do dormant companies in Kazakhstan still need to submit financial statements as part of annual compliance?

Yes. Dormant entities must file nil returns unless formally liquidated through the egov.kz portal beforehand.

3. What revenue or asset level triggers the statutory audit threshold in Kazakhstan?

Large LLPs with over 250 employees or annual revenue exceeding 3,000,000 MCI require a mandatory statutory audit.

4. Can I change my fiscal year-end to simplify the compliance calendar and filing dates in Kazakhstan?

No. Kazakhstan mandates a strict January 1 to December 31 calendar year for all registered entities.

5. Which supporting documents must accompany the corporate tax return for small businesses in Kazakhstan?

Depreciation schedules, related-party transaction disclosures, and transfer pricing documentation where intercompany transactions exist, filed via cabinet.salyk.kz.

6. How are interest charges calculated on overdue corporate tax payments in Kazakhstan?

At 1.25 times the National Bank base rate per day, currently approximately 0.052% daily on the overdue amount.

7. Does my startup qualify for the micro-entity or small-company exemption from full financial-statement submission in Kazakhstan?

Small enterprises under 250 employees and below the revenue threshold may file under simplified NFRS instead of full IFRS.

8. Are beneficial ownership register updates included in the annual filing package, or do they follow a separate deadline in Kazakhstan?

Separate. Any ownership change must be notified to the Business Register within 30 days of occurring, independently of annual filings.