Company Formation in Kazakhstan
Updated on Wednesday 15th May 2024
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With one of the strongest economies in the Commonwealth of Independent States association and with the largest one in Central Asia, with its oil, minerals and metals reserves, Kazakhstan is one of the countries where many foreign investors decide to set up a company in. For further information or assistance with the process, our experts in company formation in Kazakhstan remain at your service.
Company types in Kazakhstan
When deciding to open a company in Kazakhstan, you first have to choose which business entity best suits your interest; this can easily be done by consulting a member of our team. A foreign entrepreneur has a few possibilities when talking about company formation: the limited liability partnership, the additional liability partnership, the joint stock company, the branch or the representative office.
However, the most common business type among investors is the limited liability partnership. Here are the requirements for forming a company as such in Kazakhstan:
- it can be incorporated by a single partner of any nationality;
- at least one director (must be an individual, not a company, and he/she has to acquire a work permit if the nationality is other than Kazakh);
- all documents must be submitted in Kazakh or Russian.
Statutory documents of an LLP in Kazakhstan
The limited liability partnership (LLP) gains legal recognition after signing its statutory documents. In Kazakhstan, the main documents available for this legal entity are the incorporation contract and the statute.
The incorporation contract must be signed when the LLP is incorporated by minimum 2 investors – in this case, the document has to be completed in writing and signed in front of a public notary. Then, it is necessary to draw up the statute, through which the LLP gains its legal recognition.
The process of company formation in Kazakhstan can be completed online and, according to the Government’s portal, this part of the registration can be completed in 2 business days. Overall, the registration process takes around 10 business days.
Guidelines for registering a company in Kazakhstan
The first step of the process is the state registration of the company and then applying for the digital signature that has to be obtained along with the tax registration from the Public Registration Center. In order to register a company in Kazakhstan, you must also notarize the certificate of state registration and other documents.
The third step is to open a current account at the bank (please know that our consultants can also help investors set up an offshore bank account, which is necessary when opting for offshore incorporation). Some documents must be filed for this procedure, such as a copy of the company's state registration certificate or the application for the bank account functioning.
Our company formation experts can assist you with this step, as well as with everything else. Last, you need to register for the employees' life and health insurance.
Categories of companies according to their size
Kazakhstan recognizes 4 categories of companies when referring to their size. The size is established based on a few factors, meaning the number of employees and the annual income. These are important for tax matters and, in this country, it must be noted that the investors have to select a category during the process of company incorporation in Kazakhstan. The categories are:
- micro company – it has up to 15 employees and an annual income of up to KZT 110,760,000;
- small business – it has up to 100 employees and an income of up to KZK 1,107,600,000;
- medium company – the number of employees varies from 100 to maximum 250 and the income starts from minimum KZT 1,107,600,000 to maximum KZT 11,076,000,000;
- large company – it has more than 250 employees and the annual income is above KZK 11,076,000,000.
The annual income is established on a year-to-year basis, as it is calculated based on the monthly calculation index (MCI), an index which influences various types of taxes, payments, benefits and other types of tax obligations. The MCI also establishes the minimum salary level and pension payments.
For companies, this index has important tax implications. For instance, investors who will open a company in Kazakhstan must register for VAT when their annual turnover exceeds 30,000xMCI. For 2024, MCI has a value of KZK 3,692.
You can form a company in Kazakhstan in just a couple of weeks, during which you can benefit from the assistance of our company formation team. Our agents offer both consultancy and information on establishing other types of business entities as well and this can be done for other countries too, therefore do not hesitate to address us.
You can also rely on our team of consultants on professional services for offshore company setup. Our team has a vast experience in handling all procedures for offshore company formation regardless of the jurisdiction that you may be interested in, therefore, we invite you to contact us for this corporate service as well.