All legal entities created on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan are subject to state registration, regardless of the purpose of their creation, the type and nature of their activities, and the composition of participants (members). Branches and representative offices of legal entities located on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan are subject to registration without acquiring the rights of a legal entity (Article 3 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On State Registration of Legal Entities and Record Registration of Branches and Representative Offices” (hereinafter referred to as the “Registration Law”) .

To register a legal entity, first of all you need to:

- determine in what organizational and legal form a legal entity will be created;

- determine what category of business entity will be created by the company;

- if the subject of activity of a legal entity is the provision of financial services, additional permission is required from the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Article 6 of the Registration Law); - state registration of market entities holding a dominant or monopolistic position in the relevant commodity market, as well as state enterprises, legal entities, more than fifty percent of shares (shares in the authorized capital) owned by the state, and persons affiliated with them who will carry out their activities on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, with the exception of cases when such creation is expressly provided for by the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan, by decrees of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan or decisions of the Government of Kazakhstan, is carried out by the registration authority with the consent of the antimonopoly authority (Article 6 of the Registration Law.);

- obtain a visa of business immigrant “C5”, if the founder / participants of the legal entity is a foreigner, “It is prohibited to create a legal entity, as well as participation in the authorized capital of commercial organizations by joining the participants of legal entities to foreigners who did not receive a visa to enter immigrants (paragraph 2 of article 40 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On population migration”) - other permits, depending on the type of activity in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The documents required for registration of a legal entity were approved by Order No. 112 of the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated April 12, 2007 “On Approval of the Instruction on State Registration of Legal Entities and Record Registration of Branches and Representative Offices”. Registration of legal entity online (https://egov.kz/cms/en) Types and forms of legal entities A legal entity that is a commercial organization can only be created in the form of a state enterprise, economic partnership, joint-stock company, production cooperative (clause 2 of article 34 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). State registration procedure For registration of a legal entity, subjects of medium and large enterprises, as well as non-profit organizations, the following are provided to the registration authority: 1) a statement of the established form, for subjects of medium-sized and large business, carrying out their activities on the basis of the model charter - the application for other established forms; 2) a receipt or other document confirming the payment to the budget of the fee for state registration of legal entities and record registration of branches and representative offices, with the exception of legal entities belonging to small and medium-sized businesses. Registration of legal entities with foreign participation is carried out in accordance with the procedure established for registration of legal entities of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In addition to the documents stipulated by the current legislation, unless otherwise established by international treaties ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the following shall be additionally submitted: 1) legalized extract from the trade register or other legalized document certifying that the founder that is a foreign legal entity is a legal entity under the legislation of a foreign state, with a notarized translation in Kazakh and Russian languages; 2) a copy of a passport or other document proving the identity of the founder who is a foreigner, with a notarized translation in the Kazakh and Russian languages.

The requirement of any documents and information, except as provided by law, is prohibited. The state registration of a legal entity may be made on the basis of an electronic application submitted via the Internet, in the manner determined by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

For the state registration of a legal entity related to a small business entity, the registering body by the founder (founders) shall be notified of the commencement of business activities in the form established by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The statutes (regulations) of legal entities related to small businesses, their branches and representative offices are not represented in the state registration process.

State registration of legal entities belonging to small businesses with foreign participation is carried out in accordance with the procedure established for registration of legal entities of the Republic of Kazakhstan relating to small businesses. Unless otherwise established by international treaties ratified by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the following shall be additionally submitted: - legalized extract from the trade register or other legalized document certifying that the founder that is a foreign legal entity is a legal entity under the laws of a foreign state, with a notarized translation into Kazakh and Russian languages; - a copy of a passport or other document certifying the identity of the founder of a foreigner, with a notarized translation into Kazakh and Russian languages.

Confirmation of acceptance of the notification of the commencement of business activities is the issuance of a certificate of state registration of a legal entity. The issuance of a certificate of state registration of a legal entity is carried out no later than one working day following the day of filing the notification of the commencement of business activities.

Categories of business entities

When registering a legal entity, it is necessary to provide the estimated average annual number of employees and the average annual income of a business entity. The subjects of entrepreneurship are citizens, oralmans, non-state commercial legal entities engaged in entrepreneurial activities (private entrepreneurship entities), state-owned enterprises (subjects of state entrepreneurship, clause 1 of Article 23 of the Business Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). Depending on the average annual number of employees and the average annual income, business entities fall into the following categories: small business entities, including micro-business entities; subjects of medium business; subjects of large business (clause 1 of article 24 of the Business Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan): - micro entrepreneurship - up to 15 people / up to 30 000 MCI; (In accordance with Article 7 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the Republican Budget for 2017-2019”, of January 1, 2017, 1 MCI (monthly calculated indicator) is set at 2,262 tenge); - small business - up to 100 people / up to 300 000 MCI; - medium business - from 100-250 people / from 30 000 to 3 000 000 MCI; - big business - over 250 people / over 3 000 000 MCI. (Clause 3, 5-6 Article 24 of the Business Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan)

The assignment of business entities to the categories is used for the following purposes:

- state statistics;

- provision of state support;

- application of other norms of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan (clause 2 of Article 24 of the Business Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan)

To ensure information security it is prohibited:

- for foreign individuals and legal entities, as well as stateless persons directly and (or) indirectly to own, use, dispose and (or) manage more than 20 percent of shares (stakes, divvies) of a legal entity

- the owner of the media in the Republic of Kazakhstan or carrying out activities in this domain;

- management or operation of trunk lines of communication by foreigners, stateless persons and foreign legal entities without creating a legal entity in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

- creation and operation of communication networks in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the control center of which is located outside its borders;

- the acquisition or other acquirement by individuals and legal entities, independently or as part of a group of persons, of more than 10 percent of voting shares, as well as stakes, divvies of an organization that owns and (or) carries out management or operation of a communication line as an intercity and (or) international communication, without the consent of the authorized body in the field of communications and information, as well as national security agencies;

- for foreigners, stateless persons and foreign legal entities directly and (or) indirectly to own, use, dispose of and (or) manage in total more than 49 percent of voting shares, as well as stakes, divvies of a legal entity operating in the field of telecommunications of long-distance and (or) international communications operator owning land (cable, including fiber-optic, radio-relay) communication lines without a positive decision of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan based on the authorized body in the field of communications and information, agreed with the national security authorities (pp. 3) - 7) clause 6 of article 23 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the National Security of the Republic of Kazakhstan”).