How many taxes are there in Uzbekistan: the full list in the Code, fees, and the difference between direct and indirect taxes

Mohira runs a small workshop in her neighbourhood where she dries and sells apricots and grapes. The workshop is called «Bahor Quritma» LLC. Before the New Year she asked the accountant: "Which taxes apply to us? My friend says eight, someone else says ten." The accountant smiled and opened the Code. The answer is written there, just not all in one place. Today we will find that answer together.

In the first lesson we saw what a tax is, and in the second what elements each tax consists of. Now we will count them.

Are a tax and a fee the same thing?

No. Article 16 of the Tax Code defines the two separately.

A tax is a mandatory non-refundable payment made to the budget system. "Non-refundable" means that in return for what you pay, the state is not obliged to give you anything specific. A fee is also a mandatory payment, but what it is tied to is different: paying the fee is one of the conditions for an authorised body or its official to perform an act of legal significance for you, for example to issue a permit.

In short: you pay a tax and ask for nothing in return. A fee, on the other hand, is paid for a particular permit or right.

What is the full list of taxes in the Code?

Part one of Article 17 lists the taxes established in the territory of Uzbekistan. I write them in the order of the Code, leaving none out. The section numbers are taken from the section titles in the Code:

That makes ten in all. The number "5-1" is not there for nothing: this clause was added to the Code later, in 2021, so it sits next to clause 5 as "5-1". Someone who says "nine taxes" has counted by clause numbers. In fact it is ten.

The last column is only for this made-up workshop and may be different in your company: who pays which tax is written in that tax's own section. For example, who pays the water tax is determined in Chapter 63, and I will not decide here whether it applies to the workshop.

### Taxes you have heard of that are not on the list

Mohira asked another question: "What about turnover tax? Our neighbour the shopkeeper pays it." True, but it is not on the list in Article 17. Article 18 of the Code gives a separate list of "special tax regimes", and turnover tax comes first in it. That article has four more items:

• a special procedure for taxing participants in product sharing agreements;
• a special procedure for taxing participants in special economic zones and certain categories of taxpayers;
• a special procedure for taxation in certain regions of Uzbekistan;
• the specific features of taxing Islamic finance operations.

Here I have only shown where they are; we will open up how they work in later lessons.

Which payments count as fees?

Part two of Article 17 says: fees may be established in Uzbekistan; the procedure for introducing them is written in laws, and the procedure for calculating and paying them in the Code and other legislation.

Part three lists the fees whose calculation and payment the Code itself regulates. There are five kinds:

1. the fee for the entry of foreign states' motor vehicles into Uzbekistan and their transit through its territory;
2. the fee for the right of goods vehicles and trailers with a load capacity above 10 tonnes to use the roads;
3. fees for the right to sell alcoholic products;
4. the fee for the right to retail beer and beer drinks;
5. the fee for the right to retail tobacco products.

The state duty is a separate matter: under part four, the procedure for calculating and collecting it is set not in the Code but in the legislation on state duty. Do not look for it in the Code's list of taxes either.

The drying workshop pays none of these five fees, because its work has nothing to do with them. But if it later wants to open a shop selling beer or tobacco, it will run into exactly these fees.

Direct and indirect taxes: what is this division?

"Direct tax" and "indirect tax" are general concepts widely used in economics; Article 17 does not apply them to taxes. In the Code's list every tax is written only under its own name. So I do not refer to an article for this division: it is general knowledge.

The idea is simple, and the question is one: whose pocket does the burden of the tax come out of?

• With a direct tax, the payer pays the tax from their own income or property, and the burden stays with them. Corporate profit tax, personal income tax, property tax and land tax are usually counted here.
• With an indirect tax, the payer adds the tax to the price, and the real burden is carried by the person who bought the goods. VAT and excise tax usually belong here.

I deliberately did not put social tax, the water resources tax, the subsoil tax and the special rent tax into either group: they are classified in different ways, and I cannot give a definite answer. It is better to leave a gap than to guess.

Who is left carrying an indirect tax? Let us see with figures

Now let us follow the VAT path of Mohira's workshop. For simplicity we assume that all three participants are VAT payers. The rate is 12 percent, the confirmed general rate. Prices are given without VAT:

Now we work out how much each participant transfers to the budget. Each one transfers the VAT they received minus the VAT they paid (we covered this mechanism in the article "How does VAT work", and here we only use the result):

The total is 4.8 + 3.6 + 3.0 = 11.4 million soum. That is exactly 12 percent of the 95 million soum sold to the final customers. All three participants sent money to the budget, yet none of them paid the tax out of their own pocket: each added it to the price and collected it from the next one. The burden itself lies in the final customer's 106.4 million soum receipt.

Corporate profit tax is different: it is calculated on the workshop's own profit and is not passed on to anyone. I have not written its rate in this lesson: the aim is not arithmetic but to show the difference between types.

Practical advice

• If you argue with friends about "how many taxes there are", first agree on the counting rule: only the list in Article 17, or fees and special regimes as well. Otherwise everyone will quote their own number.
• Before submitting a report, ask yourself: "Is this payment a tax, a fee or a state duty?" Their procedures are written in different documents.
• When agreeing a price, ask: is this price without VAT or with VAT? In the table above, there is a 4 800 000 soum difference between 44 800 000 and 40 000 000.
• Several parts of Article 17 have come out in a new wording in recent years, so check the list against the Code currently in force, not from memory.

Next lesson

In the fourth lesson we turn to the taxpayer themselves: what rights and obligations the Code gives them, what the TIN is, and why a company must be registered with the tax authority.