Accounting

GPSSA (General Pension and Social Security Authority) is the federal pension fund for UAE nationals working in the government and private sectors in every emirate except Abu Dhabi (which has its own Abu Dhabi Pension Fund). Important: this system covers UAE nationals only — foreign employees do not receive a pension, they receive an end-of-service gratuity instead. Since 31 October 2023, two regimes apply in parallel: the old regime (Federal Law No. 7 of 1999, 20% contributions) for those registered with GPSSA before that date, and the new regime (Federal Decree-Law No. 57 of 2023, 26% contributions) for anyone entering the UAE workforce for the first time on or after that date.

The 2026 payroll burden in Kazakhstan consists of three deductions from the employee's income — individual income tax (IIT), the mandatory pension contribution (OPV) and the medical insurance contribution (VOSMS) — and four charges borne by the employer: the employer pension contribution (OPVR) at 3.5%, social contributions at 5%, employer medical insurance deductions at 3% and social tax at 6%. Two statutory indicators run through every calculation: the monthly minimum wage (MZP) and the monthly calculation index (MCI).

A new Tax Code took effect in Kazakhstan on 1 January 2026 — Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 214-VIII of 18 July 2025. The standard VAT rate rose from 12% to 16%, and the turnover threshold for compulsory VAT registration was halved from 20,000 MCI to 10,000 MCI. With the monthly calculation index (MCI) set at KZT 4,325 for 2026, that threshold is KZT 43,250,000. The filing window for the registration application has been cut to five working days from the date the threshold is exceeded.

On 1 January 2018, the UAE introduced Value Added Tax (VAT) — a consumption-based indirect tax ultimately borne by end consumers, with businesses acting as its collectors on behalf of the government. The introduction of VAT was part of the UAE's economic diversification strategy under the GCC Unified VAT Agreement.

The most underestimated tax and technological topic in the UAE as of April 2026 is not a new tax rate, but mandatory electronic invoicing.

The duty to keep accounts and the duty to be audited come from different Kazakh statutes and turn on different tests. Accounting and reporting sit in Law № 234-III of 28 February 2007 “On accounting and financial reporting”; audit sits in Law № 304-I of 20 November 1998 “On auditing activity”. A company can be obliged to file with the depository and still not be subject to mandatory audit — and the reverse is equally possible.

Mandatory audit in the UAE typically follows from three independent sources of obligation: Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021 (Commercial Companies Law) for mainland companies, PJSCs, and PrJSCs; the internal rules of the specific free zone for licence renewal; and Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 for Corporate Tax purposes. An audit is mandatory for Qualifying Free Zone Persons (regardless of revenue), for any taxable person with revenue exceeding AED 50 million in the tax period, for all Tax Groups, and for most companies in major free zones (DMCC, JAFZA, DIFC, ADGM, and others) — independently of the tax rules, as a condition of licence renewal.

Three key distinctions make UAE payroll fundamentally different from most countries.

Transfer pricing in the UAE is governed by Chapter Ten of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses. The arm's length principle in Article 34 applies to every transaction and arrangement with a Related Party, regardless of the size of the business or its turnover. The thresholds set by Ministerial Decision No. 97 of 2023 determine only the obligation to maintain a Local File and Master File — they neither displace the principle itself nor remove the duty to substantiate pricing on request from the Federal Tax Authority.

From 1 January 2026 the issuance of invoices in Kazakhstan is governed by the new Tax Code No. 214-VIII and by Order No. 629 of the Minister of Finance of 28 October 2025. The previous e-invoice rules — Order No. 370 of 22 April 2019 — have been repealed in full. The headline change: where a tax risk is identified, an electronic invoice must additionally be certified with the biometric data of the individual issuing it, and without passing biometric identification the invoice cannot be issued at all.