Tax Newsflash - January 2025

Dear Readers,

The tax authorities extended the Tax-Free Pilot Project until 31 December 2025. The pilot project is being implemented in stationary trade facilities and international airports in the cities of Astana, Almaty, Shymkent, and Turkestan.

According to the approved procedures, the operator of tax-free system (Global Blue company) reimburses an individual buyer for the VAT paid in Kazakhstan, if all the following conditions are met:

• The buyer is a citizen of a foreign state that is not a member state of the Eurasian Economic Union;
• The purchased goods are exclusively non-food items and the buyer acquired them from an entity participating in the tax-free system, located in trade facilities that are part of the pilot project;
• The purchased goods are not excisable under Kazakhstan's tax legislation;
• The buyer provides to the operator a tax-free document (a receipt) properly completed and stamped by the state revenue authorities seal;
• The total value of the purchased goods indicated on the tax-free documents (receipts) exceeds 20 times the monthly¹ index factor;
• The buyer exports the purchased goods beyond the Eurasian Economic Union via a checkpoint at the state border of Kazakhstan in the international airports of Astana, Almaty, Shymkent, or Turkestan;
• The period from date of the issuance of the tax-free document (receipt) to the application for the VAT refund does not exceed three months.

The Tax-Free Pilot Project is regulated by a new order² of the Minister of Finance that came into effect on 16 January 2025, applies to legal relations arising from 1 January 2025, and remains in force until 31 December 2025. The previous order³ from 2019 ceased to be in effect.