Kazakhstan May Require Marketplaces to Pay VAT

Kazakhstan has drafted amendments to the Tax Code that would make local marketplaces VAT agents for foreign sellers. The change covers goods that overseas suppliers sell to Kazakhstani buyers through online platforms — we first covered this trend on September 22, writing about banks and marketplaces sharing data with the tax service.

If passed, platforms would calculate and remit VAT to the budget on behalf of foreign sellers, so buyers won't need to worry about where a supplier is registered. For marketplaces, this means taking on the role of tax agent and upgrading accounting and IT systems to correctly determine the rate, the seller's country, and the tax amount for every transaction.

Check which goods your company buys from foreign sellers through marketplaces — the VAT-agent scheme will raise the bar for source documents and payment reconciliation. This is where 1Cifer's accounting layer helps: it processes bank statements and reconciles documents, showing which sales already had VAT withheld by the platform.