With the entry into force of the new Tax Code, the rules for paying individual income tax (IIT) on the sale of property have changed. As reminded by the Department of State Revenues of Almaty, the main innovation is the increase in the minimum holding period for housing to be sold without tax from one year to two years. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The basic principle of taxation remains unchanged: the object of taxation is exclusively the increase in value.
"If you sold property for more than you bought it, the difference is your income. It is from this net profit that you need to pay 10% tax," the statement says.
To help citizens adapt to the new requirements, fiscal authorities have provided a transition period for 2026 and 2027. The rules apply depending on the date of acquisition of the property.
If housing was purchased before January 1, 2026, the old norm applies. When selling after one year of ownership, the tax amount will be zero tenge. If an apartment was purchased after January 1, 2026, to be exempt from IIT, you must wait two years from the moment of registration of ownership rights. From 2028, the two-year rule will become uniform for all transactions.
When assigning rights of claim in new buildings under a shared-equity agreement (SEA), tax is not levied if one of two conditions is met: three years have passed since the date of signing the document, or two years since the registration of ownership.
At the same time, tax exemption is not provided for the sale of commercial real estate within the country (offices, warehouses, shops), as well as any housing outside Kazakhstan. In these cases, tax on the increase is always paid, regardless of the period of ownership of the asset.
For cars registered in Kazakhstan, the norm remains the same: selling a vehicle without tax consequences is possible after one year of ownership. When selling earlier, tax is paid only on the difference between the purchase and sale price. Cars with foreign registration are taxed on the increase in value regardless of the period of ownership.
A similar approach applies to the crypto industry.
"If you invest in digital assets, keep in mind: tax is paid on them regardless of the holding period," the DGR emphasizes.
In situations where the owner lacks primary documents (purchase and sale agreements or checks confirming expenses), fiscal authorities apply an alternative calculation method.
"In this case, the tax authority will take the appraised or cadastral value of the object as a basis," the statement clarifies.
For cars imported from abroad, the initial cost officially includes paid customs duties, value added tax, excise taxes, and recycling fee, which allows legally reducing the final taxable base.
Kazakhstan's new Tax Code came into force on January 1, 2026. The document was signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in July 2025. The reform increased the basic VAT rate to 16%, and set the threshold for mandatory registration for this tax at 10 thousand MCI — about 40 million tenge. At the same time, the number of special tax regimes was reduced to three: for self-employed, businesses on simplified declaration, and peasant or farm enterprises.
The Code also introduced a progressive scale for individual income tax and increased the corporate income tax rate for banks and gambling business to 25%. The authorities stated that the reform should reduce the volume of tax reporting by 30%, the number of taxes by 20%, and make cameral control predominantly preventive: measures against taxpayers are now applied in stages, taking into account the amount of debt.