IT-park residency, incentives and benefits
The technological park of software products and information technologies (IT-park) of Uzbekistan was established by the state in 2019. The corporate website of IT park is available at it-park.uz.
The main objectives of the IT park are:
- creating favorable conditions for the development of the IT sector, promoting information products and services in the domestic and foreign markets
- providing residents of IT-park with infrastructure, financial, marketing, consulting assistance
- organizing training for young specialists in the field of information technology
Resident company of IT-park
A company registered in Uzbekistan and operating in the field of information technology can apply to obtain IT-park residency status. A company located in any region of Uzbekistan may be the resident of IT-park.
The following benefits and incentives are granted by law to IT-park residents:
- a resident company enjoys tax and customs benefits
- a resident company has the right to attract foreign specialists to work on the territory of Uzbekistan without obtaining a work permit for such specialists
- a resident company has the right to pay wages from export earnings to foreign specialists in foreign currency by making money transfers to international payment cards
IT-park also provides resident companies with the opportunity to rent a virtual office for the use as a registration and postal address. A virtual office can be provided if the executive director of a resident company is a citizen of Uzbekistan.
Tax benefits
Resident companies of IT-park are exempt until January 1, 2028 from paying all types of taxes and mandatory contributions to state trust funds, including:
- income tax
- turnover tax
- value added tax (VAT)
- social tax
A resident company of IT-park is exempt from taxes for business activities approved by the IT-park when obtaining residency status.
Until January 1, 2028, salary paid to employees of a resident company under employment contract is subject to personal income tax at the reduced rate of 7.5%.
Tax benefits apply from the first day of the month following the month in which a company obtained residency status.
Customs benefits
Resident companies of IT-park are exempt until January 1, 2028 from paying customs duties (except for customs processing fees) for equipment, components, technological documentation, software imported for their own needs that are not produced in Uzbekistan as per approved lists.
In order to apply the exemption on customs duties, a positive conclusion from the Center for Comprehensive Expertise of Projects and Import Contracts under the Ministry of Economy and Industry of Uzbekistan is required.
If, within 3 years from the date of import, a resident company uses the goods, exempted from customs duties, other than for his own needs, the amount of unpaid customs duty is subject to recovery with a penalty.
Obtaining residency status
A company applies to IT-park for residency status through the portal my.it-park.uz. Together with an application, the company will submit a business plan for consideration.
The application has to indicate the business of the applicant which must correspond to the permitted types of activities. For instance, design and development of software, audit of information systems, educational activities in the field of information technology, provision of services in the field of multimedia and design are permitted types of activities.
See the list of activities permitted for resident companies of IT-park.
Review of the application for residency status usually takes 20 to 30 business days.
Obligations of an IT-park resident
From the day of obtaining residency status, a resident company is obliged to fulfill the following requirements:
- no later than the 20th day of the next month, pay mandatory contributions to IT-park in the amount of 1% of the amount of all revenue (income) for the past month
- no later than the 15th day of the next month after the end of a calendar quarter, submit special reports to IT-park
- no later than July 1 of the next year, submit to IT-park an audit report for the past calendar year
- engage only in the types of business specified in the business plan approved by IT-park
A resident company must ensure that the volume of English language teaching services does not exceed 40% of the total annual income from the education related to information technology.
Mandatory contributions to IT-park
No later than the 20th day of the next month, a resident company pays mandatory contributions to IT-park in the amount of 1% of the total revenue (income) earned in the past month.
If export volumes exceed 10 million US dollars within 12 months, the monthly contribution will be 0.75%, and if export volumes exceed 20 million US dollars - 0.5%.
However, if the resident's annual income is 100 billion Uzbek soums or more, but income from export is less than certain thresholds, then the resident will be required to make contributions in the amount of 2%.
Losing IT-park residency status
The grounds for deprivation of IT-park residency status are as follows:
- non-compliance with the requirement to engage only in the permitted types of activities
- failure to provide information about company's activities, tax and statistical reporting, a business plan, an audit report within due deadlines, or providing false information in them
- non-payment of mandatory payments to IT-park
- reorganization of a resident company
- declaring a resident company bankrupt
- voluntary renunciation of residency status by a resident company
- failure to fulfill obligations of the agreement with IT-park and other grounds
Failure of a resident company to fulfill its obligations to IT-park entails deprivation of residency status with the restoration of obligations to pay unpaid taxes to state budget.