A visiting meeting of the Project Office for the Implementation of the new Tax Code was held in the capital on the sidelines of the annual IX exhibition of Kazakhstani manufacturers "Ulttyqinim – 2026".

The event, organized in the format of an open dialogue, brought together more than 100 participants: heads of domestic enterprises, representatives of central government agencies, the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" and industry experts. The main purpose of the field meeting was to discuss practical aspects of the implementation of the new tax legislation, issues of modernizing tax administration, as well as the development of effective measures of state support for domestic producers.

The panel session was moderated by Dmitry Kazantsev, a tax consultant. Business representatives had the opportunity to directly ask questions, identify systemic problems and immediately receive answers from the heads and specialized specialists of key departments: ministries of National Economy, Finance, Trade and Integration, Agriculture, Industry and Construction, Labor and Social Protection of the population, the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, NCE "Atameken".

Opening the meeting, First Vice Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Azamat Amrin stressed that holding a visiting meeting of the Project Office directly at the exhibition site, where more than 600 entrepreneurs from all over Kazakhstan gathered, allows for maximum coverage of the business community, to hear the consolidated opinion of the real sector of the economy and promptly respond to the requests of entrepreneurs.

Form 200 and employee social protection

Simplified reporting, in particular, Form 200, became one of the hot topics of discussion. Representatives of the Ministries of National Economy and Labor and Social Protection of the Population explained why the preservation of this form is fundamentally important. Reporting accumulates key payments for an employee: social and medical insurance, pension contributions, individual income tax and social tax. Payments from the Social Insurance Fund for Pregnancy and Childbirth, child care, loss of breadwinner, disability and unemployment directly depend on the regularity of these deductions. In confirmation, Azamat Amrin cited illustrative figures: at the end of last year, the average salary in the country amounted to 435 thousand tenge, while 54% of entrepreneurs show a minimum wage of 85 thousand tenge for employees.

"When entrepreneurs pay for their employees from the minimum wage and give out salaries in envelopes, they do not protect their employees socially. Therefore, the state has to do this, as it is one of the main functions. We have 1.3 million individual entrepreneurs and 9 million employees, and we make decisions comprehensively: not only for the benefit of businesses, but also for ordinary citizens. If the salary is 300 thousand, it is necessary to show and pay to all funds from it. This is not paid to the state. This is paid to the person himself so that he can go to the hospital, so that if you fire him tomorrow, he will receive 120 thousand instead of 50-60 thousand for six months and can support his family," Azamat Amrin emphasized.

Self-employed: the regime should not replace labor relations

An equally significant topic of discussion was the correct application of a special tax regime for the self-employed. Dmitry Kazantsev, a tax consultant, addressed Kazakhstani entrepreneurs with a direct warning: businesses, by transferring employees to the self-employed regime for the sake of tax savings, risk exposing themselves and this regime itself.

"When businesses dismiss employees and transfer them to the self-employed, they believe that the state does not see this and that the SRC does not notice how the employee still goes to work from nine to six and receives the same salary every month, only now in the self-employed format. In business, we sometimes go too far and can lead to the fact that later they will begin to squeeze the opportunities that they have given to the self-employed: to close work with B2B, to reduce the maximum amount of income," said Dmitry Kazantsev.

Business concerns were confirmed by First Vice Minister of National Economy Azamat Amrin. He noted that the authorized bodies are systematically monitoring the application of the regime, and stressed that in case of mass abuses, the state is ready to review the list of permitted activities for the self-employed.

"If there are a lot of such abuses, we will simply clean up these types of activities. When we introduced this rule, we initially said that this would be the case. This is a two-way road: please work, register, all taxes are paid only to yourself. But if the regime is used as a tax evasion tool, we will take measures," Azamat Amrin said.

According to the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, currently 521 thousand individuals apply a special tax regime for the self-employed. About 125,000 of them generate checks on a monthly basis on an ongoing basis.

ISNA and the "Blank Sheet" 

A separate section of the discussion was devoted to the work of the ISNA tax administration information system, a single taxpayer's Office. Vice Minister of Finance Asset Turysov explained that the system replaced seven previous disparate systems and was put into commercial operation last year. The parallel existence of the old and new offices in the first quarter was maintained at the direct request of business associations and Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs so that entrepreneurs could submit reports under the new code in the usual format. According to the Vice Minister, it is this transitional regime that has become the source of most discrepancies in data and user requests.

"The old KNP must become a thing of the past. We love it, but new technologies will only be available in the new taxpayer's office. Moving away from the old system, it will be easier for both us and the business. Maintaining two systems in the first quarter is a step towards business, but it also creates additional risks. According to the results of the first quarter, ISNA adopted all forms of reporting," Turysov said.

The Vice Minister also said that the Ministry of Finance is preparing to launch a single call center for consultations on tax issues and information systems, and the issue of centralizing notifications has already been taken up by the operational staff together with business associations.

Continuing the topic of tax administration, the meeting participants discussed the results of the Clean Slate program aimed at freeing micro and small businesses from tax arrears. According to the SRC, 19 thousand micro and small business entities took advantage of the program. They provided repayment of arrears in the amount of 13 billion tenge, for which penalties and fines totaling 9.3 billion tenge were written off, including penalties – 4.4 billion tenge and fines – 4.9 billion tenge. To understand the scale: As of January 1, 2026, there were more than 157 thousand registered in Kazakhstan. debtors with a total tax debt of 1.1 trillion tenge, of which more than 101 thousand are micro and small businesses with a total debt of 801 billion tenge.

The business model must change

Gulbanu Maigarina, Chairman of the SME Development Committee of the Atameken NPP, General Director of LANZHOU COMPANY LLP, spoke on behalf of the business community. She noted that in parallel with the changes in tax administration, it is important for entrepreneurs not to lose sight of their own business model. According to her, the previous approaches, in which it was enough to open the store doors or put the product on the shelf to get a sustainable result, no longer work.

"Today we are very short of knowledge, primarily financial. According to our survey, 68% of micro and small business entrepreneurs work with little or no marketing. Today's client is conquered in a completely different way, and if an entrepreneur does not use modern tools, does not know what digital is, does not understand where his client came from, this is no longer business management. Businesses today need to be managed through numbers. All decisions should be made solely through numbers. Those who really manage their business, rather than imitating its presence, will become strong during this period," Gulbanu Maigarina emphasized.

In conclusion, she thanked the government agencies and the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs for a unique platform for direct dialogue and stressed the importance of further joint work to adapt the business community to the new tax realities.

Following the results of the field meeting, all proposals and systemic issues received from entrepreneurs will be worked out within the framework of the Project Office for the Implementation of the Tax Code with the participation of sectoral government agencies, the State Revenue Committee and the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs.

https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/economy/press/news/details/1227086?lang=ru

Source : https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/kostanai-ekonomika-zhosparlau/press/news/details/1229445?lang=ru