Tax NewsFlash - July 2025

Dear Readers,

The President signed amendments¹ to the current tax legislation. We present a brief overview of some of the most significant, in our opinion, changes related to personal income taxation, which come into effect on 1 January 2025.

• Unlike the current procedure, which taxes only capital gains and disregards losses, the amendments propose calculating income from realization of securities based on the aggregate financial results of all transactions within the tax period, including both profitable and unprofitable transactions.
• The amendments define the initial value of securities as the sum of their purchase price and brokerage expenses or as another value in cases of inheritance, donation, debt repayment, and other situations.
• There is a separate procedure for recording income from tax-exempt securities.

• The amendments require individuals to convert income received in foreign currency into tenge at the annual average official exchange rate set by the National Bank for the year in which they received the income. Previously, individuals used the exchange rate on the last working day preceding the income receipt date.

• The amendments establish a limited list of criteria triggering an obligation to submit an Assets and Liabilities Declaration and an Income and Property Declaration. Consequently, the new rules abolished the introduction of universal reporting, which previously mandated all citizens to file the abovementioned tax declarations.

• The following individuals must submit an Assets and Liabilities Declaration:
  • Individuals obliged to file the tax declaration under legislation related to elections, anti-corruption, banking, insurance, and the securities market;
  • Citizens and residents owning certain property outside Kazakhstan;
  • Citizens and residents holding digital assets;
  • Individuals engaged in private practice.
• Individuals who have already filed an Assets and Liabilities Declaration before 1 January 2025, are exempt from resubmission.
• If an individual fails to file the initial Assets and Liabilities Declaration by the deadline, the tax authorities may use information about property and liabilities obtained from state organizations, banks, and other sources as of December 31 of the year preceding submission.
• The list of assets for declaration remains largely unchanged, with the only addition of funds held in foreign brokerage accounts.

• According to the amendments, the following individuals (Kazakh citizens and residents) are required to submit an Income and Property Declaration:
  • Individuals obliged to file the tax declaration under legislation related to elections, anti-corruption, banking, insurance, and the securities market;
  • Executives, founders (participants) of legal entities with ownership exceeding 10%, and their resident spouses (except founders of non-profit organizations);
  • Individuals with income subject to personal taxation (excluding business income);
  • Individuals holding amounts exceeding 1 000 times the Monthly Index Factor (3 932 000 tenge in 2025) in foreign bank accounts as of December 31 of the reporting year;
  •  Individuals owning assets subject to registration abroad as of December 31 of the reporting year;
  • Individuals holding digital assets;
  • Individuals engaged in private practice;
  • Individuals who during the year acquired assets (real estate, vehicles, business shares, securities, derivative financial instruments, shares in construction projects, investment gold) valued over 20 000 times the Monthly Index Factor (78 640 000 tenge in 2025);
  • Individuals who submitted an application for tax deductions to the tax agent in the form of an advance amount of other deductions.

However, owning foreign bank accounts, property abroad, or digital assets (points 4, 5, and 6) does not trigger an obligation to submit an Income and Property Declaration if the individual already has an obligation to file an Assets and Liabilities Declaration for the same reporting period.

• The amendments replace Form 240.00 for nonresidents with Form 270.00, aligning it with the form used by residents with the filing deadline of September 15 of the year following the reporting year.
• The tax authorities will annually publish information about individuals’ registered property, account balances, and income received on the individual's web application by June 1 of the year following the reporting year.
• The amendments establish requirements for documentary evidence of debts subject to declaration. Individuals must document debts either by notarization (between individuals), or by a civil-law agreement and reconciliation act (between an individual and a business entity), or by a court decision. Debts without documentary evidence will be considered nil.
• The eligibility for income tax deductions remains available for large families, as well as other tax deductions, including those for education, medical services, remuneration, and voluntary pension contributions. Therefore, retrospective recalculation of these tax deductions on individuals' income is unnecessary. However, as stated above, individuals who have applied preliminary amounts of these deductions are required to submit an Income and Property Declaration (Form 270.00).