Kazakhstan’s parliament passed the law to bind bloggers pay internet advertising taxes and to counter fake news.
Kazakhstan’s parliament (Mazhilis) began to consider the draft law on online-platforms and online-advertising in May.
The authors of the draft law claim that the need for regulation of bloggers’ activity and online space arose a long time ago because of the active online scam, cyberbullying and illegal advertising.
Liter says the law affects, first of all, “bloggers, influencers advertising known brands, conducting training and selling courses.”
The law reportedly does not affect users, first of all, the very concept of “online advertising.”
Kazakh PM Aidos Sarym told CABAR.asia that the draft law would protect regular internet users. According to him, they will be able to differentiate between the blogger’s personal opinion and paid advertising. The point is that bloggers will have to mark native and targeted advertising, sponsoFred content – all these notions are “new” to the legal framework of Kazakhstan.
The draft law (it will become the law once it is endorsed by the president) will give Kazakhstan such new legal notion as blogger (also known as influencer).
The document defines this notion as follows: a user of the online platform, who publishes information addressed to an indefinite group of people in purpose of entrepreneurship.
To make monetary relationships on the internet more transparent, influencers will be obliged to open separate accounts for advertising revenue; they will have to pay taxes from this money. Tax inspectorate can check legality of money source.
A particular portion of the draft law is reportedly dedicated to the operation of online platforms in Kazakhstan. Moreover, legislators included messengers into the list of online platforms, according to CABAR.asia.
Also, the draft law in fact approves the “right to oblivion” in Kazakhstan. Thus, a user can demand that the representative of the online platform remove information, which the user considers false. In the document, false information means information that “is contrary to the fact, or contains material misrepresentation that creates false belief of events, phenomena and processes reported in any form.” If the platform refuses to annihilate the data, the user can go to court.
Tajikistan, taxes were imposed on bloggers in 2021. A Tajik blog-entrepreneur pays tax at the rate of 6.0 percent of total revenue in a cash method. Another method is the cost deduction, which is 18%. For example, if blogger earned 100,000 somonis during the time of his/her quarterly report and spent 99,000 somonis, 99,000 somonis are deducted and blogger pay an 18-percent tax from the remaining 100 somonis of profit.
According to data from the tax Committee under the Government of Tajikistan, Tajik bloggers have paid 540,000 somonis in taxes over the first six months of this year. 70 bloggers have officially registered with Tajikistan’s tax bodies to date.
