Kazakhstan is considering changing the legal status of self-employed individuals, potentially classifying them as business entities. The matter was discussed at a meeting of the project office for the implementation of the new Tax Code, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin, reports infohub.kz.
Currently, self-employed individuals are not recognized as business entities. However, authorities plan to further study the issue, as the new tax regime has already attracted hundreds of thousands of people. Existing legislation does not classify the self-employed as entrepreneurs, creating a legal conflict between the Tax, Business, and Social Codes. Moreover, official small and medium business statistics do not include this category of citizens.
Under the new Tax Code, the special tax regime is available to individuals who are not registered as sole proprietors, work in permitted activities, do not hire employees, and earn no more than 300 monthly calculation indices per month. Under this regime, they pay only social contributions at a rate of 4%.
According to the State Revenue Committee, 688,800 people have registered as self-employed since the beginning of the year. The vast majority—597,000, or 87%—work through digital platforms such as Yandex, InDrive, and Wolt. Another 91,500 operate independently. Only a small fraction of the new self-employed were previously entrepreneurs: 84,200 registrants had held sole proprietor status. The remaining 546,400 had never been registered as entrepreneurs before. Thus, more than half a million Kazakh citizens have entered the official employment and taxation system for the first time.
Meeting participants noted the need to determine whether self-employment will become an independent form of economic activity, an intermediate step toward entrepreneurship, or a separate employment category. The decision will influence amendments to the Business and Social Codes. Following the discussion, authorities decided not to enshrine the status of the self-employed in these codes for now. The issue is expected to be revisited next year, once more experience has been gained with the new tax regime.