Kazakhstan’s government to ease pressure on dividends 

Kazakhstan is going to lift a dividend tax if the sum of a dividend is less than $218,644 a year, according to Amanzhan Zhamalov, a member of Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis. The lower house of the parliament has already approved the amendments to the national tax legislation.

As Zhamalov noted, these changes followed the order of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to improve taxation in the mining sector and prevent capital from being withdrawn from the country. 

«When we reviewed the draft law in the parliament, we introduced some changes into the document. First of all, it concerns benefits on dividends paid by the company which stocks are traded on KASE or AIFC. These changes are aimed at promoting the attractiveness of our stock market between retail investors,» he said.

The new rule also implies the removal of the mineral extraction tax for sites that are going to start after December 31, 2022. However, the tax will be imposed on those companies after five years or when the level of profitability of their business reaches the 15% threshold. The rule must mitigate the increase in the mineral extraction tax for the mining industry in Kazakhstan.

In addition, the parliament set excise duty for heated tobacco products – it is equal to 70% of the tariff for cigarettes. Also, the new rule is measuring these products by piece, not by weight as before.

«Moreover, we are going to restore the three-year tax exemption period for imports of cattle, pesticides, breeding animals, insemination equipment and to set a new balanced tariff for digital miners,» said Zhamalov.