Branch and Representative Office of a Foreign Company vs an LLP in Kazakhstan in 2026: Record Registration, Taxation, Restrictions

A branch and a representative office of a foreign company are not legal entities and undergo record registration (учётная регистрация) rather than state registration; an LLP is created as a separate legal entity and answers for its own obligations. The difference between the three forms runs along four lines: legal personality, tax regime, sector restrictions and exit procedure. The decisive fork is not the choice of legal form but the question of whether a permanent establishment arises — that is what determines whether corporate income tax becomes payable at all.

Important. Record registration creates no new subject of law, and the foreign company’s liability for the obligations of its Kazakh branch is unlimited. Article 43(3) of the Civil Code: “Branches and representative offices are not legal entities.” A branch’s contracts are the head company’s contracts, and enforcement reaches all of its property, not the assets “allocated” to the branch. The second most important point: the widely repeated figure “a state duty of 6.5 MCI for branch registration” does not apply to a branch of a foreign commercial company at all — Article 615 of the Tax Code expressly excludes commercial organisations from the payers of the registration fee.

Legal Framework: Three Layers That Must Not Be Mixed

The subject is governed by three independent layers — civil, registration and tax — and each solves a different problem. The Civil Code defines how a branch differs from a legal entity; the registration law sets the procedure; the Tax Code determines who pays and how much.

Civil and corporate layer:

•          Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (General Part) No. 268-XIII of 27 December 1994 — Article 42 (registration and re-registration), Article 43 (branches, representative offices and other separate structural subdivisions).

•          Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 2198 of 17 April 1995 “On State Registration of Legal Entities and Record Registration of Branches and Representative Offices” — in force since 20 April 1995, current wording as at 12 July 2026. Articles 6-1 (registration of small business entities), 6-2 (record registration of branches and representative offices), 8 (the regulation/charter of the branch), 9 (time limits), 10 (payment), 14-2 (notification procedure), 16-1 (removal from record registration).

•          Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 220-I of 22 April 1998 “On Limited and Additional Liability Partnerships” — Articles 10 (sole participant), 23 (charter capital). Article 9 on the maximum number of participants was deleted by Law No. 416 of 16 May 2003, meaning the fifty-participant cap has not applied for more than twenty years.

•          Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 223-III of 12 January 2007 “On National Registers of Identification Numbers” — assignment of the BIN.

•          Entrepreneurial Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 375-V of 29 October 2015 — Article 276 on guarantees of legal protection for investors.

•          Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 414-V of 23 November 2015, Article 19 — the status of the head of a branch of a foreign legal entity as the employer’s representative.

Tax layer:

•          Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 214-VIII of 18 July 2025, brought into force on 1 January 2026. It replaced the Tax Code No. 120-VI of 25 December 2017, which ceased to have effect on 1 January 2026. Author’s assessment: any publication citing Articles 220, 553 or 645 of Code No. 120-VI today is operating on a repealed provision.

•          Key articles for this subject: 226–231 (permanent establishment), 94–96 (registration records), 99–102 (VAT registration), 347–350 (payment and advance payments), 357 (CIT rates), 359 (return), 363 (personal income tax rates), 440–445 (personal income tax and reporting), 452, 454, 503, 506 (VAT), 555–557 (social tax), 615 (registration fees), 681–682 (income of non-residents), 688–689 (income and net income of a permanent establishment), 708–711 (head office expenses), 713 (reduced rate under a tax treaty), 715–723 (special tax regimes).

•          Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 239-VIII of 8 December 2025 “On the Republican Budget for 2026–2028”, Article 7: the monthly calculation index (MCI) from 1 January 2026 is 4,325 tenge, the minimum wage is 85,000 tenge.

Social and currency layer:

•          Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 224-VII of 20 April 2023 — Articles 244 (social contributions), 248–249 (mandatory pension contributions), 251 (employer pension contributions).

•          Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 405-V of 16 November 2015 “On Mandatory Social Health Insurance” — Articles 14, 27, 28.

•          Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 167-VI of 2 July 2018 “On Currency Regulation and Currency Control”, current wording as at 12 July 2026 — Article 1 (residents and non-residents), Article 13 (registration number of a currency contract).

•          Rules on Monitoring of Currency Transactions, approved by Resolution No. 64 of the Management Board of the National Bank of 10 April 2019, and the Rules on Carrying Out Currency Transactions, approved by Resolution No. 40 of 30 March 2019. Both were amended in 2026, including by the Resolution of the Management Board of the National Bank of 31 March 2026, brought into force on 19 April 2026.

A note on source access. The official portal adilet.zan.kz is closed to automated access. All quotations of legislation in this article are taken from the legal databases kodeksy-kz.com, zakon.uchet.kz and prg.kz, and from kgd.gov.kz, nationalbank.kz, aifc.kz and afsa.aifc.kz; the specific database is named against each quotation in the source list.

Branch, Representative Office and LLP: The Difference Under the Civil Code

A branch may perform all or part of the functions of the legal entity that created it; a representative office is confined to protecting and representing that entity’s interests; an LLP is an independent legal entity rather than a subdivision.

Article 43(1)–(3) of the Civil Code:

“1. A branch is a separate subdivision of a legal entity located outside its seat and performing all or part of its functions, including the functions of a representative office. 2. A representative office is a separate subdivision of a legal entity located outside its seat, carrying out the protection and representation of the interests of the legal entity, concluding transactions and performing other legal acts on its behalf, except in cases provided for by the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 3. Branches and representative offices are not legal entities. They are endowed with property by the legal entity that created them and act on the basis of regulations approved by it.”

Author’s assessment: the common formulation “a representative office may not carry on commercial activity” has no direct statutory basis in Kazakh law. Neither Article 43 of the Civil Code nor Articles 1, 6-2 and 8 of Law No. 2198 contain such a prohibition. More than that, Article 43(2) expressly empowers a representative office to conclude transactions on behalf of the legal entity. The restriction is functional and fiscal rather than prohibitive: a representative office operates within the protection and representation of interests, whereas the performance of “all or part of the functions” of the head company is assigned by Article 43(1) to a branch, and trading activity by a representative office gives rise to a permanent establishment with the tax that follows.

None of this touches the constitutive documents of the creating entity. Author’s assessment: the current wording of Article 43 of the Kazakh Civil Code contains no requirement to name branches and representative offices in the charter of the entity that created them — unlike the Russian regime, from which this requirement is often carried over by inertia. The Kazakh requirement is framed at the registration level: Article 42(4) of the Civil Code states that “branches and representative offices are registered in the manner established by law”, and Article 8 of Law No. 2198 sets out the mandatory content of the branch regulation.

Branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities are governed by the same rules as Kazakh ones.Paragraph five of Article 6-2 of Law No. 2198: “Record registration of branches (representative offices) of foreign legal entities is carried out in the manner established by legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan for record registration of branches (representative offices) of legal entities of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”

Feature	Branch	Representative office	LLP
Legal personality	No, Civil Code art. 43(3)	No, Civil Code art. 43(3)	Yes, an independent legal entity
Type of registration	Record registration	Record registration	State registration
Scope of functions	All or part of the head company’s functions	Protection and representation of interests	Its own legal capacity
Liability	Head company’s, unlimited	Head company’s, unlimited	The LLP with its own property; the participant up to its contribution
Charter capital	Not provided for	Not provided for	100 MCI; for a small business entity — zero
Acts on the basis of	A regulation approved by the head company	A regulation	Its charter
The head acts under	A power of attorney	A power of attorney	The charter and participants’ resolutions
BIN	Its own	Its own	Its own

Record Registration: What It Is and How It Differs From State Registration

Record registration is the entry of information about an already existing legal entity and its subdivision into the National Register of Business Identification Numbers with the assignment of a BIN; it does not create a new subject of law. State registration, by contrast, creates the legal entity: under Article 42 of the Civil Code an entity is deemed created from the moment of state registration.

Article 1 of Law No. 2198 defines record registration as comprising “verification of the compliance of documents… entry of information on branches and representative offices into the National Register” of business identification numbers, with the issue of a certificate and the assignment of a BIN.

The practical consequence worth keeping in view: a branch has its own BIN but no legal personality of its own.The BIN opens access to tax registration, a bank account, hiring staff, electronic invoices and public procurement — but it does not create a separate asset perimeter. Nor does a branch offer any confidentiality advantage: information about the branch and about the foreign company that created it enters the public register exactly as information about LLP participants does.

The registering authority is the justice bodies; the front office and the recipient of payment for commercial organisations is the State Corporation “Government for Citizens”. The competence of the justice bodies is set out in Articles 4 and 5 of Law No. 2198, and that of the State Corporation in Article 5-1.

From 2026 filing is electronic by default. The final paragraph of Article 6-2: record registration “is carried out on the basis of an electronic application submitted through the web portal of ‘electronic government’ and other digitalisation facilities”, except for branches of political parties and religious associations.

Which Documents Are Required to Register a Branch of a Foreign Company

The list of documents for a branch or representative office of a foreign legal entity is set by Article 6-2 of Law No. 2198 and includes three items that a Kazakh branch does not need: a legalised extract from the commercial register, a document confirming tax registration in the country of incorporation, and a notarised translation into two languages.

The key paragraph of Article 6-2:

“In addition to the documents provided for by that procedure, unless otherwise established by international treaties ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan, there shall additionally be submitted a legalised extract from the commercial register, constitutive documents or another legalised document of the foreign legal entityconfirming that the foreign legal entity creating the branch (representative office) is a legal entity under the law of the foreign state, as well as a document confirming tax registration in the country of incorporation of the foreign legal entity, stating the tax registration number (or its equivalent). Documents of the foreign legal entity creating the branch (representative office) shall be submitted with a notarised translation into the Kazakh and Russian languages.”

The full set under Article 6-2:

No.	Document	Comment
1	Application in the form prescribed by the Ministry of Justice	Signed by an authorised officer of the foreign company; a seal is not required for private business entities
2	Proof of payment	Registration fee — for a non-commercial head organisation; payment to the State Corporation — for a commercial one
3	Regulation on the branch (representative office)	Approved by the foreign company, in Kazakh and Russian
4	Power of attorney for the head of the branch	Issued by the foreign company
5	Copy of the charter (regulation) of the foreign company	—
6	Legalised extract from the commercial register	Apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention or consular legalisation; the exception is ratified international treaties
7	Document confirming tax registration in the country of incorporation, stating the number	The item most often overlooked
8	Notarised translation of all foreign documents	Into Kazakh and Russian — both, not either
9	For a branch whose object of activity is “financial services”	The register obtains the financial regulator’s permission by electronic notification; the applicant does not file it

Author’s assessment: the law sets no maximum age for the commercial register extract. Neither Article 6-2 nor the Rules for the Provision of the State Service, approved by Order No. 66 of the Acting Minister of Justice of 29 May 2020, prescribe one. The requirement that the extract be “no older than three or six months” is the practice of individual registrars and banks, not a legal rule.

A comparison with an LLP shows that a branch is not the lighter option at the registration stage but the heavier one. A foreign founder of an LLP files, under Article 6-1, the same legalised extract with the same dual notarised translation. A branch additionally requires the regulation, the power of attorney and the foreign tax registration document.

Timing and Cost of Record Registration: Where the Commonly Quoted Figures Are Wrong

Record registration of a branch of a foreign commercial company is completed no later than the working day following the day the application is filed; for a branch of a foreign non-commercial organisation the period is five working days.

Article 9 of Law No. 2198 separates the categories:

Category	Time limit under Article 9
Legal entities that are private business entities, and record registration of their branches	One working day from submission of the electronic application
Commercial legal entities and record registration of their branches involving foreign persons without identification numbers	No later than the working day following the day of filing
Branches and representative offices of foreign non-commercial organisations	No later than five working days
Political parties	No later than one month

Author’s assessment: the “fifteen working days” figure still found in overviews is out of date. The current wording of Article 9 contains no such period for branches at all.

A practical caveat without which the deadline misleads: time stops running if the document set is incomplete or defective — and that, rather than the registration itself, is what turns “one day” into two to four weeks for a foreign applicant. The critical path is not the justice window but the apostille, consular legalisation and dual notarised translation.

Two different cost regimes apply, and they are constantly conflated.

The first regime is the registration fee under the Tax Code, and it does not apply to commercial organisations.Article 615(2) of Tax Code No. 214-VIII opens with the words: “The rates of the fee for state (record) registration of legal entities, their branches and representative offices, excluding commercial organisations…”.

Object under Article 615(2)	Rate	In tenge at an MCI of 4,325
Legal entities, their branches and representative offices (non-commercial)	6.5 MCI	28,112.5 tenge
Political parties, their branches and representative offices	14 MCI	60,550 tenge
Children’s and youth public associations, associations of persons with disabilities and organisations they have created that meet the conditions of Article 322, plus branches of national-cultural associations	2 MCI	8,650 tenge
Budget-funded institutions, state enterprises, condominium associations	1 MCI	4,325 tenge
Re-registration of budget-funded institutions, state enterprises and condominium associations	0.5 MCI	2,162.5 tenge
Re-registration and termination of children’s and youth associations and associations of persons with disabilities	1 MCI	4,325 tenge

The rates in this table are calculated at the monthly calculation index in force on the date the fee is paid — a different base from Articles 348, 682 and 723.

The second regime is the State Corporation’s charge, and it is the one that applies to a branch of a foreign commercial company. Article 10(2) of Law No. 2198 assigns the setting of the price for commercial organisations and their branches to the authorised body in agreement with the Ministry of Justice and the antimonopoly authority; the act in force is Order No. 24/НҚ of the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of 16 January 2024, effective 19 January 2024. For small and medium-sized business entities the service is free.

The charges in force from 19 January 2024 (excluding VAT): free for small and medium-sized business entities; for large business 9,885.38 tenge through the front office and 9,699.17 tenge through the portal; re-registration for all categories 10,009.51 and 9,823.31 tenge; deregistration free for small and medium business and 9,736.41 or 9,637.10 tenge for large business. The price list contains no separate line for a branch of a foreign legal entity — it falls under the general small-and-medium / large business split. Reliability caveat: the primary text of the price annex to Order No. 24/НҚ could not be opened — the State Corporation’s own portal gos24.kz publishes the schedule as an image. The order’s number, date and commencement are confirmed on gos24.kz, while the tenge amounts are confirmed on the legal portal zakon.kz and the investment portal astana.invest.gov.kz. The structure, however, is confirmed by primary provisions: a commercial organisation pays the Corporation’s price rather than the fee, and a small or medium-sized business entity pays nothing.

The LLP: Charter Capital, Participants and Registration Procedure

The minimum charter capital of an LLP is 100 MCI, but for a partnership that qualifies as a small business entity it is fixed at a zero level — that is, it effectively does not exist.

Article 23 of Law No. 220-I: “The initial amount of the charter capital equals the sum of the founders’ contributions and may not be less than an amount equivalent to one hundred times the monthly calculation index”, while for a partnership that is a small business entity “the amount of the minimum charter capital… is determined at a zero level”.

In 2026 tenge: 100 MCI = 432,500 tenge; for a small business entity — 0 tenge. The small business criteria under the Entrepreneurial Code are up to one hundred employees and annual income up to 300,000 MCI. Practical conclusion: the argument that “a branch needs no charter capital” delivers almost nothing, because a typical new LLP needs none either.

There is no maximum number of LLP participants. Article 9 of Law No. 220-I, which imposed a fifty-participant limit, was deleted by Law No. 416 of 16 May 2003. Any source still quoting a fifty-participant cap is more than twenty years behind.

A business partnership consisting of a single person cannot be the sole participant of an LLP. Article 10: “A limited liability partnership may not have as its sole participant another business partnership consisting of a single person.” Author’s assessment: this is a real trap for foreign groups — a single-member company inside a holding structure may turn out to be incapable of serving as the sole participant of a Kazakh LLP. The usual fixes are a second participant with a nominal stake, or a parent that is not a single-member partnership. Whether a particular foreign form falls within this provision is decided by the registrar.

Registration of an LLP that is a small business entity proceeds without filing a charter. Article 6-1 of Law No. 2198: “Charters (regulations) of legal entities classified as small business entities, and of their branches and representative offices, shall not be submitted in the course of state registration.” The period is one working day, and where there are foreign founders without Kazakh identification numbers, no later than the following working day. There are no state fees: commercial organisations are excluded from Article 615 of the Tax Code, and the Corporation’s charge for small and medium business is zero.

One hundred per cent foreign ownership of an LLP is permitted. Neither the Civil Code, nor Law No. 220-I, nor Law No. 2198 imposes any cap on foreign participation; the restrictions are purely sectoral. Article 276 of the Entrepreneurial Code guarantees an investor “full and unconditional protection of rights and interests” without distinguishing domestic from foreign investors.

What a foreign founder needs. A foreign legal entity needs a legalised extract from the commercial register with a notarised translation into Kazakh and Russian, plus a BIN as a non-resident. A foreign individual needs a notarised translation of the passport and a document confirming the right to register a commercial organisation under the Law “On Population Migration”: the holder of a tourist visa cannot found an LLP. The director needs an IIN, and an electronic signature for online filing. The practical side is covered in An LLP in Kazakhstan for Foreigners 2026.

Permanent Establishment: The Axis Around Which the Whole Comparison Is Built

A non-resident’s permanent establishment arises on one of the four grounds in Article 226 of the Tax Code, and it is its existence, not the type of registration, that triggers the corporate income tax liability.

Article 226(1) of Tax Code No. 214-VIII:

“A permanent establishment of a non-resident arises where the non-resident carries on activity in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan involving: 1) the existence of a fixed place of business; 2) the provision of services or performance of works through employees or other personnel hired by the non-resident; 3) carrying on activity through a dependent agent; 4) carrying on joint activity.”

The final paragraph of the same provision: “Where an international treaty applies, the permanent establishment is determined in accordance with the provisions of that treaty.”

The location of a non-resident’s structural subdivision is expressly named as a fixed place of business — but with a qualification that almost every overview omits. Article 227(1)(7) reads in full:

“the location of a structural subdivision of a non-resident legal entity, other than a representative office carrying on the activity specified in sub-paragraph 1) of paragraph 2 of Article 226 of this Code”.

Author’s assessment: the Code itself carves a representative office out of this ground so long as it stays within preparatory and auxiliary activity; there is no equivalent carve-out for a branch. The Code still contains no rule that “a branch is automatically a permanent establishment”, but the construction works almost automatically: the branch’s address is itself the fixed place of business, and the sub-paragraph 7 carve-out does not reach it.

Besides preparatory and auxiliary activity, Article 226(2) contains three further sub-paragraphs that overviews rarely mention, and each is narrower than it looks:

•          sub-paragraph 2 — the provision of foreign personnel services, on three cumulative conditions: the personnel act on behalf of and in the interests of the recipient; the non-resident bears no responsibility for the results of their work; and the non-resident’s income from the provision does not exceed 10% of its total costs of providing that personnel;

•          sub-paragraph 3 — registration with the tax authorities solely to open a bank account with a Kazakh bank;

•          sub-paragraph 4 — registration solely to discharge the obligations of a tax agent acquiring property in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

For services the threshold is 183 days. Article 228: activity gives rise to a permanent establishment if it “continues in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan for more than one hundred and eighty-three calendar days within any consecutive twelve-month period” within one project or connected projects.

Author’s assessment: for a construction site there is no domestic time threshold at all. Article 227(1)(6) names as a fixed place of business “any place where construction activity and/or construction and installation works are carried out, as well as the provision of control, monitoring and/or supervision services over the performance of those works” — with no period whatsoever. Engineering and technical supervision contracts fall inside this provision on the same footing as construction itself, but only in connection with the works: free-standing supervision services unconnected to a site do not come within sub-paragraph 6. The only time threshold anywhere in Article 227 is ten calendar days for sales of goods at exhibitions and fairs (paragraph 2). The twelve-month test that many treat as self-evident derives exclusively from a tax treaty and applies only where one exists. For a contractor from a jurisdiction with no double tax treaty in force, a construction site creates a permanent establishment from day one.

A dependent agent creates a permanent establishment regardless of duration — that is Article 229(1); the definition itself sits in Article 229(2). A dependent agent is a person authorised on the basis of contractual relations with the non-resident to represent its interests in Kazakhstan or to perform certain legal acts on its behalf and at its expense, including concluding contracts, whose activity “is not limited to activities of a preparatory or auxiliary nature”. Customs representatives, professional securities market participants and brokers are excluded — “with the exception of the activity of an insurance broker”, meaning that an insurance broker is a dependent agent. Article 229(3) adds a separate ground: a person who maintains a stock of the non-resident’s goods in Kazakhstan and/or regularly delivers such goods in its own name or in the non-resident’s name is also a dependent agent. Article 229(4) cuts both ways: a non-resident’s activity through a subsidiary creates a permanent establishment if the subsidiary meets the dependent agent test, but participation in its capital alone is not a ground for that finding. The mechanics are analysed in Permanent Establishment of a Non-Resident in Kazakhstan 2026.

The exception for preparatory and auxiliary activity is what a representative office lives on, and it is very narrow.Article 226(2)(1):

“The following does not give rise to a permanent establishment in the Republic of Kazakhstan: 1) activity that is exclusively of a preparatory or auxiliary nature for the non-resident’s subsequent activity: the use of any place exclusively for the purpose of storing and/or demonstrating goods belonging to the non-resident, without selling them; the maintenance of a fixed place of business exclusively for collecting, processing and/or disseminating information, advertising or studying the market for goods, works and services. Such preparatory and auxiliary activity must be carried on for the non-resident itself and may not form part of the non-resident’s core activities.”

Author’s assessment: the list is exhaustive and contains only two items — storing and demonstrating goods without sale, and collecting, processing and disseminating information, advertising and market research. That is noticeably narrower than Article 5(4) of the OECD Model Convention: there is no purchasing of goods here and no general catch-all for “any other activity of a preparatory character”. A representative office that steps outside these two items — or that performs what constitutes the head company’s core business — is a permanent establishment.

A permanent establishment is deemed to arise on the date the contract is concluded, not on the date of registration.Article 231(2): “A non-resident’s activity giving rise to a permanent establishment is treated as the activity of a permanent establishment irrespective of registration with the tax authorities or record registration with the registering authority, from the date the activity commences. The date of commencement of such a permanent establishment’s activity is the date the contract (agreement) is concluded.”

A representative office without a permanent establishment is still on the tax register. Article 94 extends the tax database to “a structural subdivision of a non-resident legal entity” — meaning that both a branch and a representative office enter the taxpayer database together with a BIN, regardless of whether a permanent establishment exists. Article 95 governs a separate case — registration of the non-resident itself; its paragraph 2 lists nine grounds, but the thirty-day period applies to only four of them. The others are tied to an event: acquiring or disposing of property and acquiring participation interests — before the transaction; opening a current account with a resident bank — before the account is opened.

Taxation of a Branch: 20% Corporate Income Tax Plus 15% Net Income Tax

A branch of a foreign company that constitutes a permanent establishment pays corporate income tax at 20% and, in addition, net income tax at 15% on the profit remaining after corporate income tax.

The corporate income tax rate is 20% under Article 357(2)(5): “from other activity not covered by sub-paragraphs 1), 2), 3) and 4)”. The Code sets no special rate for a permanent establishment.

The tax base of a permanent establishment is defined by Article 688. Aggregate annual income comprises income from Kazakh sources under Article 679, income under Article 237, foreign-source income received through employees of the permanent establishment, and income from transactions identical or similar to the activity of the permanent establishment. The income “must be connected with its activity”. Deductible are expenses “directly connected with earning income from activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan”, wherever incurred. Article 688(7) closes off the deduction on six grounds, not three as is usually written: royalties, fees, charges and other payments for the use of intellectual property paid to the head office; income for services rendered by the head office to the permanent establishment; interest on loans made by the non-resident itself to its permanent establishment; expenses unconnected with earning income; undocumented expenses; and management and general administrative expenses unconnected with the activity in Kazakhstan through the permanent establishment. Author’s assessment: the third item — interest on an intra-group loan from the head office — is the costliest and the most often missed: it makes debt funding of a branch pointless for tax purposes, whereas a loan to an LLP is deductible on ordinary terms.

Net income tax is 15%. The rate is confirmed twice — by Article 689 and by Article 357(1)(4): “the net income of a non-resident legal entity carrying on activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan through a permanent establishment — 15 per cent”. The base is taxable income reduced by the amounts under Chapter 24 and losses carried forward under Chapter 35, less the corporate income tax itself.

Net income tax is payable within ten calendar days after the deadline for the corporate income tax return. Return form 100.00 is filed no later than 31 March of the year following the reporting year (Article 359(1), which expressly names among the filers “non-resident legal entities carrying on activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan through a permanent establishment”). The resulting final payment date for net income tax is 10 April.

A reduced treaty rate applies only if a residence certificate is held as at the filing date of the return. Article 713: “The reduced tax rate applies where the non-resident holds, as at the date of submission of the corporate income tax return, a document confirming its residence.” Author’s assessment: this is a hard timing condition rather than a formality — if the certificate has not been obtained by 31 March, the reduced rate cannot be applied in that return; it can be claimed later by an amended return within the limitation period. Typical treaty caps on net income tax are 5% and 10%, but the Code itself contains no schedule of rates: the text of the particular treaty governs.

Author’s assessment: the key economic difference of a branch is that net income tax arises irrespective of any actual remittance to the head office. An LLP pays dividend tax only when it distributes; a branch pays 15% on the year’s profit in any event. The difference lies not in the rate but in the timing and in the absence of choice.

Advance payments: a new branch does have an exemption, just not the one usually cited. Article 348(1) contains several exemptions, and two different sub-paragraphs matter for a branch.

Sub-paragraph 1 exempts payers whose adjusted aggregate annual income for the tax period before last does not exceed 600,000 times the monthly calculation index “of the year preceding the previous financial year”. Author’s assessment: the index is not the current year’s — for the 2026 tax period it is the 2024 MCI of 3,692 tenge, that is 2,215,200,000 tenge, not 2,595,000,000. Publications that convert this threshold at the current year’s MCI overstate it by roughly 17%.

Sub-paragraph 2 exempts newly created taxpayers “during the tax period in which state (record) registration with the registering authority took place, and during the following tax period”. The wording names record registration expressly — so a new branch of a foreign company benefits from this exemption on the same footing as a new LLP.

Sub-paragraph 3 is a separate exemption for non-residents operating through a permanent establishment “without opening a structural subdivision”, and it is that one a branch cannot use, because a branch is precisely a structural subdivision. Author’s assessment: the widespread claim that “a branch pays advance payments from year one because the non-resident exemption does not reach it” conflates sub-paragraphs 2 and 3 — the first applies to a branch directly.

Special tax regimes are unavailable to a branch. Article 723(1): the simplified declaration may be applied by “individual entrepreneurs and resident legal entities of the Republic of Kazakhstan”. A non-resident operating through a permanent establishment does not meet that definition. Article 715 lists only three regimes — for the self-employed, on the basis of the simplified declaration, and for peasant farms — and all three are confined to residents or citizens.

Head Office Expenses: Two Methods and the Residence Certificate Condition

A permanent establishment may deduct the head office’s management and general administrative expenses, but only if the conditions of Article 708 are met and under one of two methods — proportional allocation or direct attribution.

Article 708 permits both methods and requires the expenses to have been incurred for the activity in Kazakhstan through the permanent establishment, wherever they arose. Excluded are: expenses already attributed directly to the permanent establishment, expenses of other foreign branches, and expenses unconnected with the registered permanent establishment. Paragraph 4 sets three conditions: compliance with the tax treaty, the documents required by Article 709 or 711, and a document confirming the non-resident’s residence. Paragraph 5 requires a translation of those documents “into the Kazakh or Russian language” — here, unlike Article 6-2 of Law No. 2198, one language suffices, and carrying the dual-language registration requirement across into the tax deduction is wrong.

The proportional method — Article 709. The allocable expenses are multiplied by a calculation ratio, which at the non-resident’s option may be, for example, the ratio of the permanent establishment’s aggregate annual income under Article 688(2) to the non-resident’s aggregate worldwide annual income determined under foreign tax law. Paragraph 3 requires five categories of documents: the permanent establishment’s financial statements; tax documentation confirmed by the competent authority of the foreign state; the non-resident’s financial statements bearing a signature and seal; a breakdown of the allocable expenses and of the permanent establishment’s expenses; and “copies of the audit report on the audit of the financial statements of the non-resident legal entity (where such financial statements are audited)”.

Author’s assessment: there is no obligation to obtain an audit in order to deduct head office expenses. The wording “where such financial statements are audited” makes submission of the audit report conditional — it is required only if the head company’s statements were in fact audited. The claim that an audit is a mandatory condition of the deduction is not supported by the provision.

Article 710 introduces an adjusting coefficient where the tax periods in the foreign state and in Kazakhstan do not coincide. Article 711 describes the direct method: it is available where separate accounting is maintained, requires documentary support, and requires the expenses to have been incurred directly to earn income from activity in Kazakhstan through the permanent establishment.

Taxation of an LLP: Differentiated Rates and New Dividend Mechanics

From 1 January 2026 Kazakh corporate income tax ceased to be a single 20% rate: Article 357 introduces five categories with different rates.

Sub-paragraph of Article 357(2)	Category	Rate
1)	Production of agricultural products by producer legal entities	3%
2)	Activity of agricultural cooperatives other than under sub-paragraph 1	6%
3)	Organisations operating in the social sphere, other than those applying Article 330	5% for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2026; from 1 January 2027 — 10%
4)	Banking activity of second-tier banks, other than income from lending to business entities, and gambling — casinos, slot machine halls, totalisators, bookmakers	25%
5)	Other activity	20%

Paragraph 1 of the same article sets rates for five objects: taxable income — at the rates in paragraph 2; income taxed at source other than non-resident income — 15%; income of a non-resident from Kazakh sources — under Article 682; net income of a non-resident legal entity operating through a permanent establishment — 15% (sub-paragraph 4); taxable income of controlled foreign companies and their permanent establishments — 20% (sub-paragraph 5).

Dividends paid to a non-resident are taxed under one of two constructions depending on the size of the holding.Article 682(1):

•          sub-paragraph 5 — “capital gains, dividends, interest, royalties” — 15%. This is the default rate, applying where the holding is below 25%.

•          sub-paragraph 6 — “dividends paid to a person directly or indirectly holding not less than twenty-five per cent of the capital of the legal entity” — 5% on taxable income up to 230,000 times the MCI per calendar year and 15% on the excess.

•          paragraph 2 — income of a person registered in a state with preferential taxation — 20%.

230,000 MCI in 2026 equals 994,750,000 tenge. Author’s assessment: the Code itself does not state the accumulation period — the note to Article 682 fixes only the calculation base, providing that the monthly calculation index in force on 1 January of the relevant financial year applies. That the scale is applied cumulatively across the calendar year and without deductions at source is confirmed by a clarification of the State Revenue Committee of 3 November 2025 — that is, it is the administrator’s position rather than the text of the provision.

Three-year holding as a ground for exempting dividends no longer applies. Article 681 contains no general holding-period exemption for dividends: what survives is the exemption for interest and dividends on securities traded on an exchange, and a three-year rule confined to capital gains on debt securities. The transition mechanics are analysed in Dividends and Profit Repatriation from a Kazakh LLP in 2026.

Special tax regimes are available to an LLP, but corporate participation above 25% closes them. Article 723(2) excludes from the simplified declaration, among others, “legal entities in which the participation interest of other legal entities exceeds 25 per cent”. The income cap under Article 723 is 600,000 MCI, that is 2,595,000,000 tenge in 2026(here the MCI is the one in force on 1 January of the relevant year, unlike in Article 348); the rate is set by Article 726 at 4 per cent, and local representative bodies may reduce or increase it by no more than 50%, though not for an individual taxpayer; the tax and reporting period is a half-year, and such a taxpayer is not a payer of social tax or VAT other than on imports and VAT for a non-resident.

Author’s assessment: the exclusion is framed by reference to participation by legal entities, not by reference to foreign participation. An LLP wholly owned by a foreign individual is not excluded from the regime; an LLP in which a foreign company holds more than 25% is. The claim that foreign participation as such deprives an LLP of a special tax regime does not match the provision in force. Further detail is in Kazakhstan’s Special Tax Regimes 2026.

What It Costs to Repatriate Profit: Branch vs LLP in Numbers

When profit is taken out of Kazakhstan, a branch and an LLP whose parent holds at least 25% of the capital produce the same result — a 24% combined burden — but only up to the 230,000 MCI threshold and only where a 5% treaty rate is available to the branch.

The calculation uses 100 units of pre-tax profit, 2026 rates, and the assumption that all after-tax profit is distributed.

Route	Corporate tax	Second layer	Total	Effective rate
Branch, no double tax treaty	20	15% × 80 = 12	32	32.0%
Branch, treaty rate of 10%	20	10% × 80 = 8	28	28.0%
Branch, treaty rate of 5%	20	5% × 80 = 4	24	24.0%
LLP, holding ≥25%, dividend within 230,000 MCI	20	5% × 80 = 4	24	24.0%
LLP, holding ≥25%, amount above 230,000 MCI	20	15% × 80 = 12	32	32.0% marginal
LLP, holding below 25%	20	15% × 80 = 12	32	32.0%
LLP, parent in a state with preferential taxation	20	20% × 80 = 16	36	36.0%

Four conclusions follow from the table, and they change the familiar logic of the choice.

First: the classic argument that “a branch is cheaper because a treaty caps the net income tax” is largely exhausted. The domestic 5% rate on the first tranche of dividends for a participant holding 25% or more now matches the branch’s best treaty outcome.

Second: above 230,000 MCI per calendar year an LLP becomes more expensive than a treaty-protected branch — 15% against 5% or 10%. The threshold is calculated cumulatively across the year, so for large distributions the branch route with a good treaty wins again.

Third: a branch pays net income tax whether or not it remits anything to the head office. An LLP decides whether to distribute. That is a difference in optionality and in timing, not in rate.

Fourth: an LLP with a corporate participant above 25% loses access to the 4% simplified declaration, while a branch has no access to any special regime whatsoever. For small operations this outweighs the difference in second-layer rates.

Author’s assessment: a rate comparison is meaningful only together with a check on treaty protection. The reduced net income tax rate does not come from the Code — it exists only in the text of a particular treaty and applies where a residence certificate is held as at the filing date of the return. The rules for applying treaties are covered in Withholding Tax in Kazakhstan 2026.

VAT: The One Place Where a Branch and an LLP Register Differently

A branch or representative office of a foreign company is itself subject to VAT registration, whereas a structural subdivision of a Kazakh legal entity is not. This is the one material gap in tax administration between the two forms.

Article 99(3) of the Tax Code lists persons not subject to VAT registration:

“1) a state institution; 2) a structural subdivision of a resident legal entity; 3) a person engaged in private practice; 4) a taxpayer applying a special tax regime; 5) an individual.”

Only a subdivision of a resident is excluded. A subdivision of a non-resident does not appear on the list, and Article 101(2)(1) expressly refers to “a structural subdivision through which a non-resident carries on activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan”. Practical consequence: a branch of a foreign company is an independent VAT registration subject, while a branch of a Kazakh LLP is not.

Article 452(3) determines when turnover belongs to the non-resident’s subdivision — any one of six indicators suffices: the contract was concluded by the subdivision; the invoice was issued by the subdivision; the completion certificate was signed by the subdivision; the head office contract provides for performance by the subdivision; the head office certificate indicates performance by the subdivision; payment was made directly to the subdivision.

The VAT rate from 1 January 2026 is 16%. Article 503(1): “Unless otherwise established by this article, the rate of value added tax is 16 per cent.” Paragraph 2 provides a reduced rate for medicines, medical devices and licensed medical services — 5% in 2026 and 10% from 1 January 2027; paragraph 3 gives 10% for domestic periodical print media; paragraph 4 gives 0% for exports.

The mandatory registration threshold has been halved to 10,000 MCI. Article 99(4)(2): “the turnover threshold is turnover equal to 10,000 times the monthly calculation index in force on 1 January of the relevant financial year”. In 2026 that is 43,250,000 tenge. The application is filed no later than five working days from the day the threshold is exceeded, and for a one-off transaction exceeding the threshold, before the transaction is carried out. The regime is analysed in VAT in Kazakhstan 2026.

Author’s assessment: a representative office with no taxable turnover is not required to register for VAT — and a non-obvious consequence follows. The obligation arises under Article 101 upon exceeding a threshold that a pure representative office does not reach; it is not on the list of exclusions in Article 99(3), so it may register voluntarily under Article 100. But Article 454(1) imposes VAT for a non-resident only on “a payer of value added tax” — meaning that an unregistered representative office buying services from foreign suppliers bears no reverse-charge VAT obligation, whereas a registered branch or LLP does.

VAT for a non-resident is payable no later than the 25th day of the second month following the reporting quarter(Article 506), at 16%.

Payroll Taxes: No Difference Between the Three Forms Here

On employer obligations a branch, a representative office and an LLP coincide entirely: the definitions in social and tax legislation are drafted so as to cover branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities expressly.

The employer is the foreign company itself, and the head of the branch exercises its rights. Article 19 of the Labour Code: “The head of a branch or representative office of a foreign legal entity exercises all rights and performs all obligations of the employer on behalf of that legal entity.” It follows that both a branch and a representative office may hire staff, run payroll and pay social contributions — a representative office is an employment platform even without trading activity.

The definitions of “agent” and “employer” name foreign subdivisions expressly. Article 1(119) of the Social Code defines an agent as “an individual or legal entity, including a foreign legal entity carrying on activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan through a permanent establishment, branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities”. Article 14(1) of Law No. 405-V on mandatory social health insurance lists as payers “employers, including foreign legal entities carrying on activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan through a permanent establishment, and branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities”. Article 555(1) of the Tax Code names as social tax payers non-resident legal entities operating through permanent establishments.

Payment	2026 rate	Basis	Branch	Rep. office	LLP
Personal income tax	10% on annual income up to 8,500 MCI, 15% above	Tax Code arts. 363, 440, 444–445	Agent	Agent	Agent
Social tax	6%	Tax Code arts. 555–557	Payer	Payer	Payer
Mandatory pension contributions	10%, capped at 50 minimum wages (4,250,000 tenge)	Social Code art. 249	Agent	Agent	Agent
Employer pension contributions	3.5% in 2026, at the employer’s expense	Social Code art. 251	Payer	Payer	Payer
Social contributions	5%	Social Code art. 244	Payer	Payer	Payer
Health insurance deductions	3%, income capped at 40 minimum wages (3,400,000 tenge)	Law No. 405-V art. 27	Payer	Payer	Payer
Health insurance contributions	2%, capped at 20 minimum wages (1,700,000 tenge)	Law No. 405-V art. 28	Agent	Agent	Agent

Reporting is on form 200.00, the reporting period is a quarter, and the filing deadline is the 15th day of the second month following the reporting period. Personal income tax is remitted no later than twenty-five calendar days after the end of the month. The 2026 forms were approved by Order No. 695 of the Minister of Finance of 12 November 2025. A detailed breakdown is in Employer Payroll Taxes and Contributions in Kazakhstan 2026.

One difference does exist, and it favours the LLP. Article 248(13) of the Social Code allows a resident legal entity to designate its branches and representative offices as agents by resolution; Article 440(6) of the Tax Code gives the same option to a “resident legal entity” — to recognise the subdivision as discharging the personal income tax and social tax obligations simultaneously. Author’s assessment: Article 352(3) is drafted more broadly — it refers simply to “a legal entity” entitled to recognise a structural subdivision as a withholding agent for corporate income tax — so the residence-based restriction is textually supported only by Article 440(6) and Article 248(13). A foreign company has no such choice: its branch is an agent directly by virtue of the definition, not by resolution. The practical effect is that payroll settlements cannot be centralised at head office level.

Currency Regulation: A Branch Is a Resident, and That Runs Against Intuition

A branch or representative office of a foreign non-financial organisation registered in Kazakhstan is a resident, not a non-resident, for currency law purposes. This is the direct opposite of what most commentary assumes, and it has practical consequences.

Article 1(3)(7) of Law No. 167-VI classifies as residents:

“branches (representative offices) of foreign non-financial organisations, other than branches (representative offices) of foreign non-financial organisations recognised as non-residents.”

Article 1(4)(3) defines the exception, and it is narrower than commonly assumed: non-residents are “branches (representative offices) of foreign non-financial organisations for which non-resident status under the currency legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan is established by the terms of agreements concluded on behalf of the Republic of Kazakhstan with foreign organisations and which entered into force before this Law was brought into effect”. The exception is therefore closed to new structures: it reaches only agreements already in force before Law No. 167-VI took effect, and a new agreement can no longer confer that status. A separate sub-paragraph, Article 1(3)(6), names as residents the branches of foreign financial organisations entitled to carry on banking or insurance activity in Kazakhstan.

A consequence worth stating on its own: transactions between a Kazakh branch and its own head office are currency transactions between a resident and a non-resident, even though they are the same legal entity.

On the registration of currency contracts an important exemption applies specifically to branches and representative offices. Paragraph 8 of the Rules on Monitoring of Currency Transactions, approved by Resolution No. 64 of the Management Board of the National Bank of 10 April 2019, requires a registration number for capital movement currency contracts exceeding USD 500,000. However, paragraph 16 of the same Rules removes from that requirement transactions “carried out by foreign establishments of the Republic of Kazakhstan and by branches (representative offices) of foreign organisations operating in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

A source reliability caveat: the text of paragraphs 8 and 16 is confirmed against the zakon.uchet.kz database; the second database returned only the document card without the body, so a word-for-word double check was not possible. The substance of the threshold is corroborated by a primary source — the National Bank’s own site, which states that a capital-movement currency contract is registered where the amount exceeds the equivalent of USD 500,000. Note the breadth of the exemption: paragraph 16 refers to branches (representative offices) of “foreign organisations” without distinguishing financial from non-financial, and attaches to the transactions carried out by the subdivision rather than to its status.

The repatriation requirement, however, does not reach a branch — and that is the second real currency advantage of the form. Article 9(2) of Law No. 167-VI: “A resident (other than a branch (representative office) of a foreign organisation) shall ensure the repatriation of national and/or foreign currency within the periods provided for by the currency contract for export or import.” The same carve-out is repeated in Article 9(4) and 9(5). The text is confirmed against two mirrors — kodeksy-kz.com and pavlodar.com. Consequence: an LLP must bring export proceeds back within the prescribed periods and is liable for a breach; a branch of a foreign company carries no such obligation.

Paragraph 19 of the Rules on Carrying Out Currency Transactions (Resolution No. 40 of 30 March 2019) is not a list of prohibitions but a list of transactions that may be aimed at withdrawing money from Kazakhstan and therefore attract enhanced bank scrutiny: financial loans from a non-resident, export transactions where the non-resident’s performance period exceeds seven hundred and twenty days, transfers above fifty thousand US dollars and several others. The paragraph closes with a carve-out: “This paragraph does not extend to intra-corporate money transfers made by branches (representative offices) of foreign non-financial organisations”.

Two of the 2026 changes are material. Resolution No. 29 of the Management Board of the National Bank of 31 March 2026, brought into force ten calendar days after official publication — on 19 April 2026, amended three acts at once — Resolutions No. 294 of 29 November 2018, No. 40 of 30 March 2019 and No. 64 of 10 April 2019: bank verification of the purpose of currency purchases and the procedure for reporting breaches were tightened. Rules No. 40 were then further amended by Resolution No. 90 of 27 July 2026, brought into force on 15 August 2026. Both sets of Rules — No. 40 and No. 64 — stand consolidated as at 15 August 2026, and the USD 500,000 threshold is preserved. A general review of the regime is in Currency Control in Kazakhstan 2026.

Sector Restrictions: Where a Branch Is Impossible and Where It Is the Only Route

There is no general prohibition on a foreign company operating in Kazakhstan through a branch; the restrictions work differently — through a requirement that the operator be a legal entity, or through caps on foreign participation that bite on the LLP instead.

The financial sector is the one area where a branch is expressly designed by the legislator as the route. Branches of foreign banks, insurance and reinsurance organisations and insurance brokers have been admitted since 16 December 2020 in performance of Kazakhstan’s WTO accession commitments. The opening of such branches is governed by Article 30-1 (a branch of a non-resident insurance or reinsurance organisation) and Article 16-4 (a branch of a non-resident insurance broker) of the Law No. 126-II of 18 December 2000. Article 16-4 was added by Law No. 399-VI of 2 January 2021 with effect from 16 December 2020 — stated expressly in the footnote to the article itself — and sets a fifty-working-day review period. The definitions of a branch of a non-resident insurance organisation and of a non-resident insurance broker sit in Article 3(8-2) and (8-1).

A conflict between the databases that is more honest to name than to smooth over. On Article 30-1 the mirrors disagree: kodeksy-kz.com traces it to Law No. 399-VI of 2 January 2021 with effect from 16 December 2020, while zakon.uchet.kz names Law No. 168-VI of 2 July 2018. The likeliest explanation is a chain — the article was introduced by the 2018 law with deferred commencement and then amended by the 2021 law — but since the available databases do not settle it, only what is independently confirmed is asserted here: the regime for branches of foreign insurers and brokers has applied since 16 December 2020. The footnote to Article 3 is consolidated and does not tie individual sub-paragraphs to individual amending laws, and Law No. 259-VIII of 16 January 2026 amended Article 3 again, so the commencement date of sub-paragraphs 8-1 and 8-2 is not asserted.

A new law applies to banks. Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 258-VIII of 16 January 2026 “On Banks and Banking Activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan” replaces the 1995 Law No. 2444 and is brought into force from 19 March 2026. Article 135 stages entry into force: the general rule is sixty calendar days after first official publication, that is 19 March 2026, with deferred dates of 1 July 2026, 1 January 2027 and 1 May 2027 for the articles it lists. Articles 16 and 72 appear in none of the deferred lists, so the regime for branches of non-resident banks has applied since 19 March 2026. Article 16 of the new law governs the permission to open a branch of a non-resident bank: the file includes notarised copies of constitutive documents, a valid banking licence of the home jurisdiction, the decision to open the branch, the consent of the home supervisory authority or confirmation that it is not required, beneficial owner data for holders of 10% or more, audited financial statements for two years and information on senior management; banks rated “A-” or above benefit from an exemption. The application is considered within 65 working days, the period may be suspended, and ten working days are allowed to cure defects. Article 72(4) sets the reserve asset requirement for the branch — the analogue of capital.

The registration interface is built into the registration law. Article 6-2 of Law No. 2198: for a branch of a foreign legal entity “whose object of activity is the provision of financial services”, the National Register of Business Identification Numbers receives information on the existence of the financial regulator’s permission by electronic notification. The applicant does not file that permission, but without it registration will not complete.

Subsoil use: a branch is structurally excluded. Article 18(1) of the Code No. 125-VI of 27 December 2017 “On Subsoil and Subsoil Use”: “The subjects of the subsoil use right may be individuals and legal entities, unless otherwise provided by this Code.” Author’s assessment: a branch is neither an individual nor a legal entity — Article 43(3) of the Civil Code denies it legal personality — so it cannot hold a subsoil use right. There is no express prohibition in the text of the Subsoil Code: the conclusion follows from the combination of two provisions and is presented here as a conclusion. The subsoil user must be a Kazakh legal entity, that is an LLP or a joint stock company.

Security activity: an absolute ban on any foreign form. Article 5(3) of the Law No. 85-II of 19 October 2000 “On Security Activity”: “In the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan the activity of security organisations of foreign states is prohibited.” Paragraph 4 prohibits foreign legal entities and persons with foreign participation from engaging in security activity, founding security organisations or participating in them. Neither a branch nor an LLP with foreign participation works here.

Mass media: a 20% cap that bites on the LLP. Article 15(2) of the Law No. 93-VIII of 19 June 2024 “On Mass Media”: “Foreigners, foreign legal entities and stateless persons are prohibited from directly and/or indirectly owning, using, disposing of and/or managing more than 20 per cent of the shares (participation interests in the charter capital, units) of a legal entity that owns a mass medium in the Republic of Kazakhstan or of a legal entity operating in that field.” The second limb is the broader one: the ceiling bites not only on the owner of the medium but on any legal entity working in the sector. A foreign media group needs a Kazakh majority partner in an LLP; a branch cannot be the owner of a mass medium.

Aviation: a 49% ceiling and a ban on effective control. Article 1 of the Law No. 339-IV of 15 July 2010 defines an airline as “a legal entity holding an operator certificate for civil aircraft”, which excludes a branch; Article 74(3) additionally requires airlines operating scheduled services to be established as joint stock companies. Article 74-1, “Restrictions on foreign participation (control) in an airline established as a joint stock company”, prohibits a foreign person from directly or indirectly holding shares in an airline “in a number exceeding forty-nine and more per cent” of the total placed shares, and from exercising effective control over it — that is, holding more than 50% of the shares, being able to elect half the board of directors, or determining its decisions by contract. Reliability caveat: the text of Article 74-1 is available only in the kodeksy-kz.com database — prg.kz serves only the table of contents and zakon.uchet.kz does not carry the article body; the phrase “exceeding forty-nine and more per cent” is reproduced as drafted and is a quirk of the statute itself, not a transcription error.

Education: a rare case where a branch is expressly contemplated. Article 36-1 of the Law No. 319-III of 27 July 2007 “On Education” separately governs “the educational activity of branches of foreign higher and/or postgraduate education organisations and foreign educational institutions”. That law sets no general cap on foreign participation in educational organisations.

Hiring staff, foreign workforce permits and bank accounts are available to all three forms. The employer is the foreign company acting through the head of the subdivision under Article 19 of the Labour Code; the permit is issued to the employer, and the subdivision acts in that capacity holding its own BIN. An account is opened under National Bank rules on the basis of a signature specimen document, documents of authorised persons and a copy of the power of attorney issued by the legal entity to the head of the branch; for a non-resident head company an original or notarised copy of the commercial register extract with translation and legalisation is also required. The practical side is covered in Opening a Bank Account in Kazakhstan for a Foreign Company.

The AIFC is a separate registration circuit. The Astana International Financial Centre is carved out of general Kazakh law by the Constitutional Law on the AIFC and operates under its own acts, primarily the AIFC Companies Regulations No. 2 of 2017, in force from 1 January 2018. A foreign company seeking a presence in the AIFC does not undergo record registration with the justice bodies but registers as a Recognised Company with the AIFC Registrar of Companies. A different registrar, a different act, different fees and an English-language common law system. The comparison is set out in AIFC or LLP: Choosing a Jurisdiction Inside Kazakhstan.

Closing Down: Removal From Record Registration vs Liquidation

Closing a branch is an administrative removal from record registration in five working days, whereas closing an LLP is a full liquidation of a legal entity; but the bottleneck in both cases is the same — the tax audit.

Article 16-1 of Law No. 2198 requires for removal from record registration: an application from the legal entity that created the branch in the form prescribed by the Ministry of Justice; the branch regulation, other than for branches of joint stock companies; proof of payment of the fee or the State Corporation’s charge; and confirmation from the state revenue authorities that there is no tax arrears. The period is five working days after a complete file is submitted. The registering authority may refuse where the procedure for termination has been breached or where unpaid arrears exist.

Author’s assessment: legally a branch closes incomparably more easily than an LLP — no liquidation commission, no liquidation balance sheet and no creditor claim period under Articles 49–51 of the Civil Code, because there is nothing to liquidate. But the actual critical path is tax deregistration, which takes months rather than five days. The exit procedure for an LLP is analysed in Liquidating an LLP in Kazakhstan in 2026.

Re-registration and notification are different procedures with different triggers. Article 42(4) of the Civil Code: “Branches and representative offices are subject to re-registration where the name changes” — and that is the only ground. Everything else goes through the notification procedure of Article 14-2 of Law No. 2198, with information to be entered within three working days: change of location, change of head, amendments to constitutive documents, change of economic activity types, change in the composition of founders, change of beneficial owner, and change of contact information.

Practical rule: a change of the branch’s address, of its head, of its regulation or of its activity types is a notification; a change of name, including as a result of the head company itself being renamed, is a re-registration.

Consolidated Comparison Table: Branch, Representative Office and LLP

The table consolidates the parameters in force as at August 2026. MCI-based amounts are converted at 4,325 tenge, the index set by Article 7 of the Law on the Republican Budget for 2026–2028.

Parameter	Branch	Repre­sentative office	LLP
Legal person­ality	No	No	Yes
Regist­ration	Record regist­ration, Civil Code art. 43, Law No. 2198 art. 6-2	Record regist­ration	State regist­ration, Law No. 2198 art. 6-1
Regist­ration period with a foreign partici­pant	No later than the following working day	Same; for a non-commer­cial head organi­sation 5 working days	No later than the following working day
State fee	Not charged to a commer­cial head company	Same	Not charged
State Corpo­ration charge	Under Order No. 24/НҚ; free for small and medium business	Same	Free for small and medium business
Charter capital	Not provided for	Not provided for	100 MCI = 432,500 tenge; small business — 0
Charter on regist­ration	Regulation mandatory, in two languages	Regulation mandatory	Not filed for small business
Foreign company’s liability	Unlimited	Unlimited	Limited to the partici­pant’s contri­bution
Permanent establish­ment	Almost always, art. 227(1)(7)	No, if within art. 226(2)	Not applicable, an LLP is a resident
Corporate income tax	20%	Does not arise absent a permanent establish­ment	20%, special rates 3/6/5/25% under art. 357
Second tax layer	15% net income tax, art. 689	None	Dividends: 5% up to 230,000 MCI for a ≥25% holder, otherwise 15%
When the second tax arises	At year end, irres­pective of any remittance	—	Only on distri­bution
Reduced treaty rate	Yes, art. 713, with a residence certi­ficate as at the return date	—	Yes, art. 706
CIT return	Form 100.00, by 31 March	Not filed absent a permanent establish­ment	Form 100.00, by 31 March
Payment of net income tax	Within 10 days after the return deadline, i.e. by 10 April	—	—
Advance payments	Yes; a new branch is exempt for two periods under Article 348(1)(2), the exemption for non-residents “without a structural sub­division” does not apply	—	Yes; a new LLP is exempt for two periods, the threshold being 600,000 MCI at the index of the year before last
Special tax regimes	Un­available, art. 723(1)	Un­available	Available if participation by legal entities is ≤25%
VAT regist­ration	Registers in its own right, art. 99(3)	Not required absent turnover; may register voluntarily	Required; branches of an LLP do not register sepa­rately
VAT threshold	10,000 MCI = 43,250,000 tenge	Same	Same
Reverse-charge VAT for a non-resident	Yes, if a VAT payer	No, if unregistered	Yes, if a VAT payer
Payroll taxes	Full set	Full set	Full set
Centralising payroll at head office level	Impos­sible	Impos­sible	Possible for a resident
Currency status	Resident, art. 1(3)(7)	Resident	Resident
Regist­ration number for a currency contract above USD 500,000	Exempt under para. 16 of Rules No. 64	Exempt	Required
Repatriation require­ment	Does not apply, Article 9(2) of Law No. 167-VI	Does not apply	Applies
Subsoil use	Impos­sible	Impos­sible	Possible
Banking and insurance	Possible since 16 December 2020	No	Possible
Mass media	Cannot be an owner	No	Possible with foreign participation up to 20%
Security activity	Prohi­bited	Prohi­bited	Prohi­bited with foreign participation
Closure	Removal from record regist­ration, 5 working days plus a tax audit	Same	Liqui­dation with a commission and a balance sheet
Re-regist­ration	Only on a change of name	Same	On a change of name, reduction of capital, change of partici­pants

Step-by-Step Algorithm for Choosing and Registering

Step 1. Determine whether the activity in Kazakhstan will generate revenue. If it will, a representative office is out: sales fall outside the two items of Article 226(2)(1) and create a permanent establishment regardless of the sign on the door.

Step 2. Check the sector before choosing the form. Subsoil use, aviation and ownership of a mass medium require a legal entity, which rules out a branch. Security activity is closed to any foreign form. Banking, insurance and brokerage, by contrast, expressly contemplate a branch.

Step 3. Check whether a double tax treaty exists and what net income tax rate it sets. With no treaty a branch yields a 32% combined burden against 24% for an LLP whose participant holds at least 25% of the capital. With a 5% treaty rate the results are equal.

Step 4. Assess annual distributions against the 230,000 MCI threshold. Up to 994,750,000 tenge per year, LLP dividends are taxed at 5% for a holding of 25% or more; above that, at 15%. For large distributions a treaty-protected branch is cheaper.

Step 5. Settle the special tax regime question. If projected income fits within 600,000 MCI and the foreign participant is an individual, or corporate participation does not exceed 25%, the simplified declaration at 4% is available only to an LLP. It is unavailable to a branch on any terms.

Step 6. Assemble the legalisation package early — it is the critical path. An apostilled or consularly legalised commercial register extract, a tax registration document from the country of incorporation stating the number, the charter, the branch regulation and the power of attorney — all with notarised translation into Kazakh and Russian simultaneously.

Step 7. Check the sole participant restriction if an LLP is chosen. A company consisting of a single person cannot be the sole participant of a Kazakh partnership under Article 10 of Law No. 220-I.

Step 8. File the electronic application through the “electronic government” portal. For a branch under Article 6-2, for an LLP under Article 6-1. Bear in mind that time stops running where the file is incomplete.

Step 9. Obtain the BIN and enter the tax register. A permanent establishment is registered under Article 231 in the manner of Article 95; record registration itself does not affect the date on which the permanent establishment arises — that runs from the date the contract is concluded.

Step 10. Check the 10,000 MCI VAT threshold. The application is filed no later than five working days from the day the threshold is exceeded, and for a one-off transaction above the threshold, before it is carried out.

Step 11. Set up the payroll perimeter. For a branch and a representative office the employer is the foreign company, and the head of the subdivision exercises its rights under Article 19 of the Labour Code; payroll cannot be centralised at head office level.

Step 12. Assess the currency perimeter. A branch is a resident; transactions with its own head office are transactions between a resident and a non-resident. A registration number for a currency contract above USD 500,000 is not required for branches and representative offices under paragraph 16 of Rules No. 64, but is required for an LLP. The repatriation requirement in Article 9(2) of Law No. 167-VI does not apply to a branch or representative office but does apply to an LLP; for export-driven models that is a standalone argument for the branch.

Step 13. Build in the exit timeline. Removal of a branch from record registration takes five working days after a complete file is submitted, but is preceded by a tax audit, and it is the audit that sets the real timeline.

Common Mistakes and What They Cost

Mistake 1. Opening a representative office and selling through it. The exception in Article 226(2)(1) covers only storage and demonstration of goods without sale, and the collection, processing and dissemination of information, advertising and market research — and it requires the activity to be carried on for the non-resident itself and not to form part of its core business. Cost: the permanent establishment arises retrospectively from the date the contract was concluded under Article 231(2), not from the moment it was noticed — with all the resulting assessments of 20% corporate income tax and 15% net income tax.

Mistake 2. Assuming a construction site becomes a permanent establishment only after twelve months. Article 227(1)(6) contains no period at all; the twelve-month test exists only in tax treaties. Cost: a contractor from a jurisdiction with no treaty has a permanent establishment from day one of the works and must file a return for a period it believed was untaxed.

Mistake 3. Budgeting for a “state duty of 6.5 MCI”. Article 615(2) of the Tax Code excludes commercial organisations from the payers of the fee; a branch of a foreign commercial company pays the State Corporation’s price, and a small or medium-sized business entity pays nothing. The cost in money is small, but it points to the source: anyone quoting 6.5 MCI for a commercial branch is working from a repealed or misread text.

Mistake 4. Believing that a branch needs no charter capital while an LLP does. Article 23 of Law No. 220-I fixes the minimum capital of an LLP that is a small business entity at a zero level. Cost: choosing the documentarily heavier form for an advantage that does not exist.

Mistake 5. Counting on a branch being easier to close. Legally that is correct — no liquidation commission and no liquidation balance sheet are required. But Article 16-1 makes removal from record registration conditional on confirmation that there are no tax arrears, and it is the tax audit that takes months. Cost: an exit plan built on “five working days” fails.

Mistake 6. Forgetting the tax registration document from the country of incorporation. This is a standalone requirement of Article 6-2 that does not exist for a Kazakh branch and is not part of a standard corporate pack. Cost: the registration clock stops and the file must be resubmitted; where activity has already begun, a gap opens between the date the permanent establishment arose and the date of registration.

Mistake 7. Translating documents into Russian only. Article 6-2 requires a notarised translation into the Kazakh and Russian languages — both, not either. Cost: the file is returned and the notarised translation must be redone.

Mistake 8. Assuming foreign participation deprives an LLP of the simplified declaration. Article 723(2)(1) excludes partnerships in which the participation interest of other legal entities exceeds 25% — a test of corporate, not foreign, participation. Cost: abandoning a 4% regime in a case where the founder is a foreign individual and the regime is fully available.

Mistake 9. Not checking the residence certificate against the return date. Article 713 requires the residence document to be held as at the date the return is filed. Cost: net income tax at the full 15% instead of a treaty 5% or 10% — eight percentage points on the entire annual result, recoverable only through an amended return.

Mistake 10. Appointing a single-member company as the sole participant of an LLP. Article 10 of Law No. 220-I prohibits this expressly. Cost: refusal of registration and a rebuild of the ownership structure at a stage when the project timetable is already fixed.

Mistake 11. Citing articles of Tax Code No. 120-VI. The 2017 Code ceased to have effect on 1 January 2026. Cost: calculating at a 12% VAT rate instead of 16%, at a 20,000 MCI threshold instead of 10,000, and on an abolished three-year dividend exemption.

Mistake 12. Treating a branch as a non-resident for currency purposes — and then extending the repatriation requirement to it. Article 1(3)(7) of Law No. 167-VI classifies branches of foreign non-financial organisations as residents, except under agreements concluded on behalf of the Republic and in force before the Law took effect. But Article 9(2) of the same Law expressly carves a branch (representative office) of a foreign organisation out of the repatriation requirement. The cost runs both ways: a misbuilt settlement and bank reporting procedure on one side, and on the other the loss of a real advantage, where an export contract is needlessly forced into repatriation deadlines that do not reach the branch.

Who Each Form Suits and When Professional Review Is Needed

A branch suits a foreign company that already carries on activity in Kazakhstan amounting to a permanent establishment, has a double tax treaty with a low net income tax rate, and distributes large amounts. Typical configurations are a contractor on a long-term contract, an exporter that wants to stay outside the repatriation requirement, a bank, an insurer or an insurance broker for whom a branch is expressly provided by law, and structures where it matters that the counterparty under the contract is the head company itself, with its balance sheet and reputation.

A representative office suits situations where the activity really is confined to the two items of the exception: storing and demonstrating goods without sale, or collecting information, advertising and market research. It is a market-entry form, not an operating one. A representative office can nonetheless hire staff and run payroll — which is often the real reason for opening one.

An LLP suits the overwhelming majority of remaining cases — where there is revenue in Kazakhstan, several lines of business, sectors requiring legal entity status, a need to limit liability, and income within 600,000 MCI, where the 4% simplified declaration is available.

Professional review is needed in six situations. First, where there are works or services and the 183 days must be counted across connected projects. Second, where the activity is construction and there is no double tax treaty. Third, where the planned annual distribution approaches 230,000 MCI. Fourth, where the structure includes an agent or distributor whose authority may reach dependent agent status under Article 229. Fifth, where the sector is regulated. Sixth, where the sole participant of the future LLP is itself a single-member company.

Two questions deserve separating, because they are conflated more often than any others. Record registration with the justice bodies and tax registration with the revenue authorities are different procedures with different consequences. A permanent establishment arises from the date the contract is concluded and exists whether or not the subdivision is registered.

FAQ

What is the difference between a branch and a representative office in Kazakhstan?

Under Article 43(1) of the Civil Code a branch performs all or part of the functions of the legal entity that created it, including commercial ones; under Article 43(2) a representative office is confined to protecting and representing interests. The law contains no express prohibition on a representative office carrying on commercial activity, and it may conclude transactions on behalf of the head company, but performance of the head company’s core functions is assigned to a branch, and trading activity by a representative office creates a permanent establishment with an obligation to pay corporate income tax.

What is record registration and how does it differ from state registration?

Record registration is the entry of information about a subdivision of an already existing legal entity into the National Register of Business Identification Numbers with the assignment of a BIN. It creates no new subject of law: the branch remains part of the foreign company, which answers for its obligations with all of its property. State registration, by contrast, creates a legal entity.

How long does it take to register a branch of a foreign company in Kazakhstan?

Under Article 9 of Law No. 2198 — no later than the working day following the day of filing for a branch of a foreign commercial company, and five working days for a branch of a foreign non-commercial organisation. The real timeline is set not by the justice window but by preparing the file: the apostille or consular legalisation, the foreign tax registration document and the notarised translation into Kazakh and Russian usually take two to four weeks.

How much does it cost to register a branch of a foreign company?

No registration fee is charged to a commercial head company: Article 615(2) of the Tax Code expressly excludes commercial organisations. What is paid is the service of the State Corporation “Government for Citizens” under Order No. 24/НҚ of 16 January 2024, and for small and medium-sized business entities it is free. The 6.5 MCI rate, that is 28,112.5 tenge in 2026, applies only to non-commercial organisations.

What taxes does a branch of a foreign company pay in Kazakhstan?

Corporate income tax at 20% and, in addition, net income tax at 15% on the profit remaining after corporate income tax (Articles 357 and 689). A tax treaty may reduce the second rate to 5% or 10%, but only where a residence certificate is held as at the date the return is filed. The return is due by 31 March, and net income tax is payable within ten calendar days after that deadline.

Which is better on tax — a branch or an LLP?

With a treaty rate of 5%, a branch and an LLP whose participant holds at least 25% of the capital both produce a combined burden of 24%. With no treaty a branch produces 32%. Above the threshold of 230,000 MCI, that is 994,750,000 tenge per year, the LLP becomes more expensive — 15% on the excess against a treaty 5–10% for the branch. A further difference: a branch pays net income tax irrespective of any remittance, while an LLP pays only on a dividend distribution.

Does a representative office need to register for VAT?

Not if it has no taxable turnover: the obligation under Article 101 arises on exceeding the threshold of 10,000 MCI, that is 43,250,000 tenge. A representative office is not on the list of exclusions in Article 99(3), so it may register voluntarily. An important consequence: an unregistered representative office pays no reverse-charge VAT when buying services from foreign suppliers, whereas a registered branch or LLP does.

Can a branch apply the simplified declaration?

No. Article 723(1) of the Tax Code admits to the simplified declaration “individual entrepreneurs and resident legal entities of the Republic of Kazakhstan”, and a non-resident operating through a permanent establishment does not meet that definition. All three special tax regimes in Article 715 are confined to residents or citizens.

Can a foreign company own 100% of an LLP?

Yes. Neither the Civil Code nor Law No. 220-I imposes any cap on foreign participation; the restrictions are sectoral — for example the 20% cap in mass media and the outright ban in security activity. But a business partnership consisting of a single person cannot be the sole participant of an LLP (Article 10 of Law No. 220-I).

Is a branch of a foreign company a resident or a non-resident for currency control?

A resident. Article 1(3)(7) of Law No. 167-VI expressly classifies branches and representative offices of foreign non-financial organisations as residents; they are treated as non-residents only under agreements concluded on behalf of the Republic and in force before the Law took effect. Resident status nonetheless does not bring two of its usual consequences: paragraph 16 of the Rules on Monitoring of Currency Transactions removes branch and representative office transactions from the requirement for a currency contract registration number above USD 500,000, and Article 9(2) of Law No. 167-VI expressly exempts a branch from the repatriation requirement that binds an LLP.

How is a branch of a foreign company closed in Kazakhstan?

Through removal from record registration under Article 16-1 of Law No. 2198: an application from the head company, the branch regulation, proof of payment and confirmation that there are no tax arrears. The period is five working days after a complete file is submitted. No liquidation commission or liquidation balance sheet is required, because there is no legal entity. The actual timeline is set by the tax audit and is measured in months.

Which changes to a branch require re-registration?

Only a change of name — Article 42(4) of the Civil Code. A change of address, a change of head, amendments to the regulation, a change of activity types, a change in the head company’s founders and a change of beneficial owner all go through the notification procedure of Article 14-2 of Law No. 2198, with information to be entered within three working days.

Key Takeaways

Record registration creates no subject of law, and the foreign company’s liability for the branch’s obligations is unlimited.

A permanent establishment arises from the date the contract is concluded, irrespective of registration — Article 231(2) of the Tax Code.

The exception for preparatory and auxiliary activity contains only two items and is narrower than the OECD Model Convention list.

There is no domestic time threshold for a construction site — the twelve months come only from a tax treaty.

A branch: 20% corporate income tax plus 15% net income tax, payable irrespective of any remittance.

An LLP with a participant holding 25% or more: 5% on dividends up to 230,000 MCI and 15% above, calculated cumulatively across the calendar year.

The 6.5 MCI registration fee does not apply to commercial organisations, and for small and medium-sized business entities registration is free.

The minimum charter capital of a small-business LLP is zero, so “a branch needs no capital” is not an argument.

Special tax regimes are unavailable to a branch in principle, and an LLP loses them where corporate participation exceeds 25%.

A branch of a foreign company registers for VAT in its own right, whereas a branch of a Kazakh LLP does not.

For currency control a branch is a resident, but is exempt both from the currency contract registration number under paragraph 16 of Rules No. 64 and from the repatriation requirement under Article 9(2) of Law No. 167-VI.

Tax Code No. 120-VI ceased to have effect on 1 January 2026 — the VAT rate is 16%, the threshold 10,000 MCI, and corporate income tax rates are differentiated.

Summary 

A branch and a representative office of a foreign company in Kazakhstan are not legal entities (Article 43(3) of the Civil Code) and undergo record registration under Article 6-2 of Law No. 2198 of 17 April 1995, whereas an LLP is created by state registration under Law No. 220-I of 22 April 1998. Record registration of a branch of a foreign commercial company takes no later than the working day following the day of filing; for a branch of a foreign non-commercial organisation, five working days. The 6.5 MCI registration fee under Article 615 of Tax Code No. 214-VIII does not apply to commercial organisations, and registration is free for small and medium-sized business entities. In addition to the ordinary pack, a branch of a foreign company files a legalised extract from the commercial register, a document confirming tax registration in the country of incorporation, and a notarised translation into Kazakh and Russian simultaneously. Taxation is determined not by the form but by the existence of a permanent establishment under Articles 226–231 of Tax Code No. 214-VIII, in force from 1 January 2026: a permanent establishment arises from the date the contract is concluded, the services threshold is 183 days within any twelve-month period, and for a construction site there is no domestic threshold at all. A branch as a permanent establishment pays corporate income tax of 20% and net income tax of 15% (Articles 357 and 689), payable within ten calendar days after 31 March; a tax treaty reduces the second rate to 5–10% where a residence certificate is held as at the return date. An LLP pays 20% corporate income tax, and dividends to a non-resident holding 25% or more are taxed at 5% up to 230,000 MCI (994,750,000 tenge in 2026) and 15% above that. Combined burden on profit repatriation: a branch with no treaty 32%, with a 5% treaty rate 24%; an LLP with a holding of 25% or more within the threshold 24%. The VAT rate from 1 January 2026 is 16% and the registration threshold is 10,000 MCI (43,250,000 tenge); a branch of a foreign company is subject to VAT registration in its own right, a branch of a Kazakh legal entity is not. Special tax regimes are unavailable to a branch, and an LLP loses them where participation by other legal entities exceeds 25%. For currency control a branch is a resident (Article 1(3)(7) of Law No. 167-VI) but is exempt from the currency contract registration number above USD 500,000 under paragraph 16 of Rules No. 64 and from the repatriation requirement under Article 9(2) of Law No. 167-VI. The minimum charter capital of an LLP is 100 MCI, and zero for a small business entity. Closing a branch is removal from record registration in five working days after confirmation that there are no tax arrears; closing an LLP is a full liquidation.

How UPPERSETUP Helps

The choice between a branch, a representative office and an LLP is a decision that is cheaper to model before filing than to correct after the first tax audit. UPPERSETUP assesses permanent establishment risk against the specific operating model, calculates the combined burden on both routes taking the double tax treaty into account, prepares the legalisation package and handles record or state registration and the tax compliance that follows. An overview of services by jurisdiction is on the Kazakhstan page.

Sources

Civil and corporate law

1.        Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (General Part) No. 268-XIII of 27 December 1994, Article 43 — branches and representative offices (kodeksy-kz.com database)

2.        Civil Code, Article 42 — registration and re-registration of legal entities (kodeksy-kz.com database)

3.        Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan — consolidated text (zakon.uchet.kz database)

4.        Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (prg.kz database)

5.        Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 2198 of 17 April 1995 “On State Registration of Legal Entities and Record Registration of Branches and Representative Offices” (prg.kz database)

6.        Law No. 2198 — article-by-article text (kodeksy-kz.com database)

7.        Law No. 2198 (zakon.uchet.kz database)

8.        Law No. 2198, Article 9 — registration time limits (kodeksy-kz.com database)

9.        Law No. 2198, Article 6-1 — registration of small business entities (kodeksy-kz.com database)

10.    Law No. 2198, Article 16-1 — removal from record registration (kodeksy-kz.com database)

11.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 220-I of 22 April 1998 “On Limited and Additional Liability Partnerships” (prg.kz database)

12.    Law No. 220-I, Article 23 — charter capital (kodeksy-kz.com database)

13.    Law No. 220-I, Article 10 — sole participant (kodeksy-kz.com database)

14.    Law No. 220-I, Article 9 — deleted by Law No. 416 of 16 May 2003 (kodeksy-kz.com database)

15.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 223-III of 12 January 2007 “On National Registers of Identification Numbers” (zakon.uchet.kz database)

16.    Entrepreneurial Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 375-V of 29 October 2015, Article 276 — guarantees of investor protection (kodeksy-kz.com database)

17.    Rules for the provision of state services in the sphere of registration of legal entities, Order No. 66 of the Acting Minister of Justice of 29 May 2020 (zakon.uchet.kz database)

18.    Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 414-V of 23 November 2015, Article 19 (kodeksy-kz.com database)

Tax Code No. 214-VIII of 18 July 2025

19.    Tax Code No. 214-VIII — consolidated text (zakon.uchet.kz database)

20.    Tax Code No. 214-VIII (prg.kz database)

21.    Article 226 — permanent establishment: grounds and exceptions (kodeksy-kz.com database)

22.    Article 227 — fixed place of business (kodeksy-kz.com database)

23.    Article 228 — permanent establishment from services, the 183-day threshold (kodeksy-kz.com database)

24.    Article 229 — dependent agent (kodeksy-kz.com database)

25.    Article 231 — tax registration and the date activity commences (kodeksy-kz.com database)

26.    Article 95 — tax registration of a non-resident (kodeksy-kz.com database)

27.    Article 94 — the tax database, including structural subdivisions of non-residents (kodeksy-kz.com database)

28.    Article 99 — general provisions on VAT registration (kodeksy-kz.com database)

29.    Article 101 — mandatory VAT registration (kodeksy-kz.com database)

30.    Article 348 — advance corporate income tax payments (kodeksy-kz.com database)

31.    Article 357 — corporate income tax rates (kodeksy-kz.com database)

32.    Article 359 — corporate income tax return (kodeksy-kz.com database)

33.    Article 363 — personal income tax rates (kodeksy-kz.com database)

34.    Article 352 — corporate income tax withheld at source; paragraph 3 on designating a subdivision as agent (kodeksy-kz.com database)

35.    Article 440 — personal income tax at source; paragraph 6 on a resident legal entity’s resolution (kodeksy-kz.com database)

36.    Article 452 — turnover from the sale of goods, works and services; paragraph 3 covers a non-resident’s structural subdivision (kodeksy-kz.com database)

37.    Article 454 — VAT for a non-resident (kodeksy-kz.com database)

38.    Article 503 — VAT rates (kodeksy-kz.com database)

39.    Article 506 — VAT payment deadlines (kodeksy-kz.com database)

40.    Article 555 — social tax payers (kodeksy-kz.com database)

41.    Article 557 — social tax rate (kodeksy-kz.com database)

42.    Article 615 — registration fee rates (kodeksy-kz.com database)

43.    Article 681 — non-resident income exempt from tax (kodeksy-kz.com database)

44.    Article 682 — withholding tax rates for non-residents (kodeksy-kz.com database)

45.    Article 688 — income of a permanent establishment (kodeksy-kz.com database)

46.    Article 689 — net income tax (kodeksy-kz.com database)

47.    Article 708 — head office expenses, the two methods (kodeksy-kz.com database)

48.    Article 709 — proportional method and list of documents (kodeksy-kz.com database)

49.    Article 711 — direct attribution method (kodeksy-kz.com database)

50.    Article 713 — reduced rate under a tax treaty (kodeksy-kz.com database)

51.    Article 706 — application of a tax treaty to dividends, interest and royalties (kodeksy-kz.com database)

52.    Article 715 — types of special tax regimes (kodeksy-kz.com database)

53.    Article 723 — conditions for applying the simplified declaration (kodeksy-kz.com database)

54.    Article 726 — the 4% simplified declaration rate and the power of local bodies to vary it (kodeksy-kz.com database)

Budget, social and currency legislation

55.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 239-VIII of 8 December 2025 “On the Republican Budget for 2026–2028”, Article 7 — MCI of 4,325 tenge (prg.kz database)

56.    Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 224-VII of 20 April 2023, Article 1 — definition of an agent (kodeksy-kz.com database)

57.    Social Code, Article 244 — social contributions (kodeksy-kz.com database)

58.    Social Code, Article 248 — payment of mandatory pension contributions by agents (kodeksy-kz.com database)

59.    Social Code, Article 249 — mandatory pension contributions (kodeksy-kz.com database)

60.    Social Code, Article 251 — employer mandatory pension contributions (kodeksy-kz.com database)

61.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 405-V of 16 November 2015 “On Mandatory Social Health Insurance” (zakon.uchet.kz database)

62.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 167-VI of 2 July 2018 “On Currency Regulation and Currency Control” (zakon.uchet.kz database)

63.    Law No. 167-VI (prg.kz database)

64.    Law No. 167-VI, Article 9 — the repatriation requirement and the carve-out for branches of foreign organisations (kodeksy-kz.com database)

65.    Law No. 167-VI, Article 9 — second verification of the text (pavlodar.com database)

66.    Rules on Monitoring of Currency Transactions, Resolution No. 64 of the Management Board of the National Bank of 10 April 2019 (zakon.uchet.kz database)

67.    Resolution No. 64 — document card showing the date of the latest wording; the body is subscription-only (prg.kz database)

68.    Rules on Carrying Out Currency Transactions, Resolution No. 40 of the Management Board of the National Bank of 30 March 2019 (prg.kz database)

69.    Rules on Carrying Out Currency Transactions — full text, wording as at 31 March 2026 (zakon.uchet.kz database)

70.    Resolution No. 29 of the Management Board of the National Bank of 31 March 2026 — currency regulation amendments (zakon.uchet.kz database)

71.    National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan — monitoring of currency transactions

Sector legislation

72.    Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 125-VI of 27 December 2017 “On Subsoil and Subsoil Use” (prg.kz database)

73.    Code No. 125-VI, Article 18 — subjects of the subsoil use right (kodeksy-kz.com database)

74.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 85-II of 19 October 2000 “On Security Activity”, Article 5 (prg.kz database)

75.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 93-VIII of 19 June 2024 “On Mass Media”, Article 15 (zakon.uchet.kz database)

76.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 339-IV of 15 July 2010 “On the Use of Airspace and Aviation Activity” (prg.kz database)

77.    Law No. 339-IV, Article 74-1 — restrictions on foreign participation in an airline (kodeksy-kz.com database)

78.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 319-III of 27 July 2007 “On Education”, Article 36-1 (prg.kz database)

79.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 126-II of 18 December 2000 “On Insurance Activity” (prg.kz database)

80.    Law No. 126-II — consolidated text, including Article 30-1 on opening a branch of a non-resident insurance organisation (zakon.uchet.kz database)

81.    Law No. 126-II, Article 16-4 — opening a branch of a non-resident insurance broker (kodeksy-kz.com database)

82.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 258-VIII of 16 January 2026 “On Banks and Banking Activity”, Article 16 (kodeksy-kz.com database)

83.    Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 262-VI of 3 July 2019 — entry into force of the provisions on branches of financial organisations from 16 December 2020 (prg.kz database)

84.    Law No. 258-VIII “On Banks and Banking Activity”, Article 135 — procedure for entry into force (kodeksy-kz.com database)

Guidance and practice

85.    State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance — section on taxation of non-residents

86.    Clarification of the State Revenue Committee on the taxation of non-resident income, 15 May 2026 (prg.kz database)

87.    Clarification of the State Revenue Committee of 3 November 2025 — the progressive scale on dividends paid to a non-resident (reproduction of the Committee’s answer, pro1c.kz)

88.    Order No. 24/НҚ of the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of 16 January 2024 — prices for registration services (commentary, prg.kz database)

89.    State Corporation “Government for Citizens” — Order No. 24/НҚ and the prices for registration services (gos24.kz)

90.    Prices for registration and re-registration of legal entities from 19 January 2024 (zakon.kz)

AIFC

91.    AIFC Companies Regulations — full text

92.    AFSA — Recognised Company: a branch or representative office of a foreign company in the AIFC

Disclaimer

This material is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, investment or consulting advice. Before taking any decision you should obtain individual professional advice reflecting your specific circumstances, jurisdiction, company status and the current requirements of the relevant regulators.

Publication date: August 2026.