Google, Apple, Temu: How Much Kazakhstan Earned from Foreign Internet Companies

Foreign marketplaces, social networks, streaming services, and other digital platforms have paid 178.8 billion tenge in the so-called "Google tax" to Kazakhstan's budget since 2022. In the first seven months of 2026 alone, revenues reached 51.5 billion tenge – almost as much as the state collected for the entire previous year, reports infohub.kz.

The "Google tax" refers to the VAT that foreign companies pay when selling goods to Kazakhstani consumers online or providing electronic services.

Currently, 133 foreign VAT payers are registered in Kazakhstan, including Apple, Amazon, Alibaba and its affiliated platforms, AliExpress, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, OpenAI, Ozon, Temu, TikTok, Samsung, Sony, and other major international companies.

In 2025, foreign internet companies transferred 57.6 billion tenge to Kazakhstan's budget. The largest payer was Singapore-registered Elementary Innovation Pte. Ltd., linked to the Temu marketplace, which paid 13.3 billion tenge.

Apple followed with 11.2 billion tenge, and Valve, which owns the Steam gaming platform, paid 10.3 billion tenge.

Google contributed another 7.3 billion tenge, while online retailer iHerb paid 4.9 billion tenge. The top ten also included Meta, TikTok, AliExpress, and other foreign online stores.

Thus, the five largest companies alone paid 47 billion tenge, or more than 80% of all revenues from foreign digital businesses in 2025.

Among other well-known services, Netflix was the largest payer, transferring 353.9 million tenge in 2025.

Spotify paid 293.1 million tenge, Zoom – 183.2 million tenge, Nintendo – 54 million tenge, and educational platform Coursera – 33.2 million tenge. Samsung Electronics contributed 9 million tenge, and IMDb.com – 375,700 tenge.

Over four years, revenues from foreign internet companies have multiplied. In 2022, the budget received 10.4 billion tenge, in 2023 – 24.3 billion tenge, and in 2024 – 35 billion tenge. In 2025, the figure reached 57.6 billion tenge. Another 51.5 billion tenge came in from the start of 2026 to August 1.

In the first seven months of this year, foreign digital companies have already paid about 89% of the total for 2025. If current trends continue, annual revenues could hit a new record.