Russians who fled to Kazakhstan now face demands to pay two years' worth of Russian taxes

Russia’s Federal Taxation Service has begun sending notices to Russian citizens who left the country for Kazakhstan to escape the war, requiring them to pay personal income tax at the full rate for 2022-2023.

Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet, citing legal experts

Details: The Russian nationals affected are employed by Kazakh companies and have already paid Kazakhstan’s individual income tax at rates ranging from 5% to 20%.

Despite this, the Federal Taxation Service is claiming that these individuals were working remotely from Russian territory.

Ilya Nazarov, managing partner at GidPrava Consulting Group, says there is a growing number of requests for legal advice on double taxation of income earned in Kazakhstan.

He said the issue affects both regular employees working at Kazakh companies and managers. All of them are working in Kazakhstan and paying local taxes.

In practice, inspectors from the Federal Taxation Service argue that if a person was a Russian tax resident – meaning they spent at least 183 days in the calendar year in Russia – then they must have been working remotely for their Kazakh employer.

Background: As reported earlier, the amount of insurance contributions (payments to state pension and healthcare funds) owed by Russian companies rose by 22% from January to March 2025, reaching RUB 352 billion (about US$4 billion) – nearly double the RUB 179 billion (US$2 billion) recorded in June 2024.

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