Peregovorka with Dana Tokmurzina | To split or not to split?
How risky is it for a business to split into separate entities? Is every case of business splitting a criminal act aimed at evading tax, or can it be a commercially justified strategic decision?
In the new episode of Peregovorka, the Fortune Partners team examines a question that affects almost every growing company in Kazakhstan.
What was discussed:
- Where the line runs between lawful optimisation and artificial splitting. The legislation sets out no clear criteria, and it is precisely this that creates the main uncertainty for business.
- The general and simplified tax regimes — which companies each is unsuitable for, and why businesses find themselves having to choose.
- How VAT affects competitiveness, and why lowering the VAT registration threshold changes the balance.
- The risks of registering a business in the name of relatives, friends or nominees.
- The position of the State Revenue Committee on purchases from taxpayers under the simplified regime, and why fabricated expenses already amount to a criminal offence.
- Franchise or splitting: where the difference lies, illustrated by the KFC case.
- And the question running beneath the whole conversation: why do businesses split in the first place, and can a high tax burden be seen as an advantage?
Featured in this episode
Dana Tokmurzina — General Director of Fortune Partners, LLM, PhD in Law.
Yelena Pustovit — Senior Consultant in the Legal Practice at Fortune Partners, with over 12 years in the Prosecutor General's Office of Kazakhstan.
Daniyar Agaidarov — Chief Financial Officer and Adviser at Fortune Partners.
Rustem Kakimov — Senior Consultant in the Tax Practice at Fortune Partners.
Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/db5yk9pSjZg
