Global Daily Tax News, Kazakhstan Revisits VAT Hike Proposal, (Feb 14, 2025)

The Kazakh Government has proposed raising the value-added tax rate and providing a value-added tax waiver for agricultural goods.

The nation's deputy prime minister has proposed raising the value-added tax rate by two percentage points, to 14 percent. Further, he has proposed exempting agricultural producers from value-added tax, to boost the international competitiveness of domestically produced goods.

The Government is also considering lowering the rate of VAT on the healthcare sector to 10 percent.

To dissuade companies from artificially splitting their operations to avoid value-added tax registration, the registration threshold will be lowerred from KZT80m (USD158,560) to KZT15m.

The nation had earlier planned to raise the headline rate to 16 percent from 2025. However, this proposal was earlier abandoned, with Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov calling on lawmakers to agree spending cuts instead to bolster the nation's finances.