Latest Amendments To The Criminal Code Envisage Conditions For Exemption From Liability For Certain Tax Offences

On 17 July 2017, the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 3 July 2017 No. 84-VI "On amendments and additions to some legislative acts of Kazakhstan on issues of improvement of law enforcement system" (the Law) entered into force. The Law envisages the humanization and decriminalization of some criminal offenses in the economic domain, including in the field of taxation.

It should be noted that changes directed toward decriminalization of tax offences are the result of active work of individual taxpayers and various associations over the past few years. Lawyers from Dentons' office in Kazakhstan have also participated in the development of suggestions for amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the Criminal Code) with regard to the exemption from criminal liability in case of voluntary payment of additionally assessed amounts of taxes.

As a result of such activities, several amendments were introduced to the Criminal Code which envisage, amongst others, exemption from criminal liability under Article 244 "Evasion of citizen from payment of taxes and (or) other mandatory payments to the budget" and Article 245 "Evasion from payment of tax and (or) other mandatory payments to the budget from organizations" subject to compliance with certain conditions.

In particular, Article 245 of the Criminal Code is supplemented with a Note stipulating the exemption from criminal liability for evasion from payment of taxes under the following conditions: (i) the offense is committed for the first time, except for the offence conducted by a criminal group, (ii) payment of tax debts and (or) other obligatory payments to the budget, as well as penalty interest are exercised on a voluntary basis.

Thus, when the above conditions are met, exemption...