Kazakhstan’s self-employed population rises to 805,000
The number of self-employed people in Kazakhstan has risen from 14,500 to 805,000 following the introduction of a special tax regime and the integration of digital platforms, Qazinform News Agency quotes Finance Minister Madi Takiyev as saying at a Government's meeting.
According to the minister, one of the Ministry of Finance’s key priorities is bringing more economic activity into the formal economy.
Since 2026, self-employed workers have been covered by a special tax regime, with digital platforms acting as tax agents and automatically withholding 4% in social payments.
Starting with Yandex, the system has since expanded to 38 digital platforms, including inDrive, Wolt, Glovo, and others. As a result, the number of self-employed people covered by the system has increased from 14,500 to 805,000, while social payments have risen from 1.4 billion tenge to 16.1 billion tenge.
The changes have also brought more than 600,000 previously unregistered individuals into the formal economy.
Takiyev stressed that digitalization makes it easier to bring economic activity into the formal system while improving oversight without creating additional administrative burdens for individuals and businesses.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had noted that Kazakhstan's GDP has grown by 29% over the past seven years.
