How much does it cost to use an Employer of Record (EOR) in Kazakhstan?

Table of contents:

• Introduction: You're not just paying for compliance, you're buying clarity

• What's included in the EOR fee in Kazakhstan?

• EOR pricing structure: Flat rate vs % of salary in Kazakhstan

• Salary + taxes + EOR fee = Your total monthly cost in Kazakhstan

• Optional add-ons: Benefits, equipment & workspace

• Is it cheaper than setting up your own company in Kazakhstan?

• Common myths about EOR pricing in Kazakhstan (and why they're wrong)

• What could go wrong if you skip compliance in Kazakhstan?

• TL;DR: Why EOR cost in Kazakhstan is a smart move, not just a line item

Introduction: You’re not just paying for compliance, you’re buying clarity

Have you ever wondered how a company ends up paying $10,000 in fines for hiring one perfectly qualified engineer?

It wasn’t because they forgot to file taxes.

Or missed payroll.

Or refused to pay for health insurance.

It was because they never realized what hiring in Kazakhstan actually required.

Here’s the thing most companies get wrong when hiring abroad: they assume “compliance” is just paperwork. It’s not. It’s a minefield, wrapped in local labor law, tied with tax codes you can’t pronounce, and delivered in triplicate.

That’s where Employer of Record (EOR) services come in. They don’t just handle the paperwork. They give you clarity, the kind that saves your budget, your sanity, and occasionally, your legal standing.

In this guide, we’re going to break down the real cost of using an EOR in Kazakhstan, including salary, taxes, service fees, and yes, optional perks like office space and gym memberships in Almaty. We’ll also show you what’s included in the price, and why it’s often cheaper (and smarter) than setting up a legal entity.

Let’s demystify the numbers. And spare you the fines.

What’s included in the EOR fee in Kazakhstan?

Most founders assume the EOR fee covers everything until their new hire in Almaty asks, “Who’s handling my visa?”

Spoiler: not every provider does.

Let’s break down what’s actually included in your monthly EOR fee and what isn’t.

What’s covered (no surprises here)

When you work with Team Up, your fee includes everything you need to legally and efficiently employ talent in Kazakhstan:

• Talent verification

We confirm the person you’re hiring is who they say they are—and legally eligible for employment.

• Local employment contracts

Compliant with Kazakhstan’s labor code, written in the right language, and ready to sign.

• Onboarding admin

Tax ID registration, social fund enrollment, payroll setup. We handle it all so your hire can start on time.

• Monthly payroll & taxes

Salary calculations, net payouts, social contributions, and income tax filings—done accurately and on schedule.

• Ongoing HR compliance

Probation management, leave tracking, contract terminations, and updates when the law changes.

No guesswork. No Google Translate. Just local compliance handled by people who live here.

What’s not included by default

If you’re hiring local talent, everything you need is baked into the EOR fee: contracting, payroll, tax compliance, HR management. Full stop.

But if you’re hiring foreign nationals who don’t already have the right to work in Kazakhstan, here’s what you’ll need to factor in:

• Work permit applications via local authorities (like the akimat)

• M1 visa processing, handled through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• Supporting documentation, labor market tests, health checks, and more

This isn’t part of the base EOR fee, because most clients don’t need it.

But if you do? We handle the entire process, start to finish. No handoffs. No headaches.

Optional extras that help your hire settle in

Want to go beyond “legally employed”? These aren’t included in the EOR fee, but we can support them on request:

• Workspace in Kazakhstan

Need a desk in Astana, a hybrid hub in Almaty, or a private office for your dev team? We’ll make it happen.

• Equipment

We can lease or purchase laptops, monitors, and accessories—shipped locally and ready on day one.

• Local benefits

Offer health insurance, gym passes, or a language course. We’ll source vetted options your team will actually use.

EOR pricing structure: Flat rate vs % of salary in Kazakhstan

You may ask, “What’s your price?”

Totally fair question. But the better question is: “How is your price structured?”

Because while some EORs charge a flat monthly fee (Team Up falls in this camp), others take a percentage of the employee’s salary, and the difference can quietly cost you thousands per year.

Let’s break it down.

The percentage model: more salary, more pain

This one’s deceptively simple:

You pay a fee based on your employee’s gross monthly salary, typically 10% to 15%.

Sounds fair, until you do the math:

Gross Monthly Salary	10% EOR Fee	15% EOR Fee
€1,000	€100	€150
€2,500	€250	€375
€4,000	€400	€600

Now multiply that by 12 months.

Then multiply again by how many people you're planning to hire this year.

See the problem?

• Your EOR cost scales with salary, even though their actual workload doesn’t.

• You get penalized for hiring senior talent or giving raises.

• The only thing predictable is how unpredictable your costs will be.

Worse, some providers bury this model inside vague proposals, hoping you won’t notice until your finance team starts throwing spreadsheets across the room.

The flat rate model: simple, honest, and scalable

At Team Up, we do things differently.

We charge a clear, fixed monthly fee—€199 per employee in Kazakhstan.

That’s it. No percentages. No upsells mid-contract. No surprises.

Whether you're hiring:

• A junior customer support agent or a senior backend lead

• One employee or a team of ten

• Remotely or in person

You pay the same predictable rate.

What’s included:

Legal local employment

Fully compliant contracts

Payroll, taxes, and filings

Benefits and HR support

Local currency payments

Ongoing employee management

It’s the stuff every EOR should include, but some only offer it if you ask (and pay more).

Why flat rate wins for growth-focused teams

You’re not just hiring one person. You’re testing a market, building a team, and scaling smart.

That means you need a pricing model that:

• Makes budgeting easy

• Doesn’t penalize growth

• Keeps margins clean for future rounds

• Doesn’t explode when you reward your best people

Flat rate EOR pricing = strategic clarity.

You know what you’re paying, why you’re paying it, and how it scales. No “gotcha” fees. No stress.

Salary + taxes + EOR fee = Your total monthly cost in Kazakhstan

Let’s cut through the pricing fog.

If you’re hiring in Kazakhstan through an Employer of Record (EOR), you’re not just looking at base salary. You’re covering:

1. Gross monthly salary (what your talent takes home)

2. Mandatory employer taxes (what you owe the government)

3. EOR fee (what you pay for legal employment, payroll, and compliance)

Add it all up,  that’s your total monthly cost per hire.

So, how does that actually look?

Step 1: Base salary

The average monthly gross salary for mid-level tech roles in Almaty or Astana ranges from:

• Junior Developer: €800–€1,200

• Senior Developer: €2,000–€3,000

• Product Manager: €2,500–€3,500

We’ll use €2,000 as a sample gross salary.

Step 2: Employer taxes in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has a relatively straightforward payroll tax system. Here’s what you’re contributing as the employer:

• Social tax: 9.5%

• Mandatory pension contribution: 5%

• Social medical insurance: 3%

Total employer contributions: ~17.5% of gross salary

On a €2,000 salary, that’s €350/month.

Note: Employee-side deductions (pension, income tax) are handled by the EOR and deducted from the gross.

Step 3: Team Up EOR fee

We keep it simple:

€199/month flat,  no matter the salary or role.

That includes:

• Local employment contracts

• Tax registrations

• Payroll management

• HR support

• Currency conversion and payments

• Local labor law compliance

Zero onboarding fees. Zero hidden markups.

Real cost example:

Let’s say you’re hiring a mid-level backend developer at €2,000/month gross.

Component	Amount
Gross Salary	€2,000
Employer Taxes (17.5%)	€350
Team Up EOR Fee	€199
Total Monthly Cost	€2,549

That’s the full picture — clean, compliant, and ready to scale.

Optional add-ons: Benefits, equipment & workspace

Hiring through an EOR in Kazakhstan covers all the must-haves: contracts, compliance, payroll, and tax. But sometimes, you want to go beyond the basics.

And that’s where optional add-ons come in.

Because offering a laptop and a local co-working space might be what gets your candidate to say yes. Or what keeps them around for the long haul?

Let’s break it down:

Health benefits & perks (à la carte)

Team Up can help you set up:

• Private health insurance

• Dental coverage

• Gym memberships

• Mental health support

• Professional development stipends

Local benefits matter, and we help you tailor them to what actually appeals to top talent in Almaty, Astana, or anywhere your hires are based.

Equipment

We offer device leasing or purchasing support, so your hires get what they need from day one.

• MacBook, Lenovo, Dell — you pick

• Optional pre-installation and delivery

• Ownership or return policies — you choose

No shipping gear from HQ. No customs headaches.

Workspace (if remote isn’t your style)

Many Kazakh professionals work hybrid environment, especially in sectors like finance, engineering, and product.

We can offer:

• Access to coworking spaces in major cities (Tashkent, Almaty)

• Priva for teams

• Hot desks or full-time seats

It’s optional. It’s flexible. And it’s fully managed by us.

Is it cheaper than setting up your own company in Kazakhstan?

Let’s not drag it out: yes, using an EOR in Kazakhstan is cheaper. Unless you’re launching a branch of your multinational empire in Almaty with a full in-house legal team — in which case, congrats, this article isn’t for you.

This is for the rest of us,  the lean, global teams that want to hire talent in Kazakhstan without taking on a legal and financial headache disguised as a business plan.

The cost of doing it yourself

Setting up a company in Kazakhstan includes:

• Entity registration and legal fees: Expect €2,000–€5,000 upfront. That’s lawyers, translators, notaries, and all the paperwork that eats weeks of your time.

• Office lease: Required. Even if your team is remote. Coworking space? Often not enough. Local address? Mandatory.

• Local director: In many cases, you’ll need a Kazakhstani resident director. That means a salary, risk, and a lot of trust.

• Monthly accounting, payroll, compliance: This isn’t DIY territory. Budget €300–€1,000+ per month for bookkeeping, payroll processing, HR support, and legal admin.

• Annual audits & tax reporting: Kazakhstan’s reporting rules change often — and you’re expected to keep up.

• Corporate bank account: Good luck navigating that without a Kazakhstani phone number, a notarized charter, and a local representative on standby.

And if you mess up any of this?

Fines, tax inspections, revoked licenses, or worse, your entire local presence flagged as non-compliant.

What you get with EOR

Now contrast that with a flat monthly EOR fee.

Team Up covers:

• Legally employing your talent in Kazakhstan

• Monthly payroll, tax filings, social contributions

• Benefits admin and HR support

• Employment contracts that hold up in Kazakhstani courts

• A hiring structure you can expand (or exit) at any time

• No setup fees

• No bureaucracy

• No surprise penalties

You hire. We handle everything else.

When should you set up your own entity?

Only if:

• You plan to hire 15–20+ employees long-term

• You’re building a client-facing operation with physical offices

• You have local leadership, finance, and legal resources already in place

• You like running payroll on Kazakh holidays

Everyone else? You’ll move faster, spend less, and avoid painful errors by using an EOR.

And if you eventually outgrow the model?

Great, we’ll help you transition into your own entity the right way.

Common myths about EOR pricing in Kazakhstan (and why they’re wrong)

Let’s play a game. We’ll say the myth, and you tell us how many times you’ve heard it on LinkedIn, in budget meetings, or whispered in Slack threads by someone who once read a blog post.

“EOR is only for big companies.”

Wrong.

If we had tenge for every time someone said this, we’d own the Bayterek Tower.

In reality, small and mid-sized teams benefit most from Employer of Record services in Kazakhstan. You avoid the complexity of setting up a local entity while getting access to local talent, compliant payroll, and HR infrastructure without needing a dozen people in legal and ops.

If you’re a five-person startup hiring your first backend dev in Almaty, you’re the ideal EOR client.

“It’s cheaper to just hire a contractor.”

Only if you enjoy gambling with labor laws.

Hiring contractors directly in Kazakhstan without registering a local entity or using an EOR opens you up to fines, tax audits, and possible reclassification, especially if your “contractor” works full-time, follows your schedule, and doesn’t serve other clients.

You might save on payroll taxes today. But you’ll pay it all back (and then some) when the Labor Inspectorate comes calling.

“All EORs charge the same.”

Not even close.

Some providers charge a percentage of gross salary (which scales up with senior hires), while others use a flat fee model (like Team Up). Then there’s the fine print — hidden fees for onboarding, offboarding, contract changes, and more.

Always ask:

• What’s included in the EOR fee?

• Is it flat or percentage-based?

• Are benefits, taxes, and payroll filings part of the deal?

• Are there extra charges for visa support, bonuses, or 13th-month pay?

Spoiler: Team Up gives you a flat, transparent fee — no surprise add-ons or end-of-month dramas.

“It’s easier to just open our own entity.”

If easier means: paperwork in two languages, registering with six government bodies, leasing office space, hiring a local director, opening a bank account, finding an accountant, and keeping up with Kazakhstan’s labor law updates… then sure.

For everyone else?

An EOR gets you hired legally and quickly, with none of the red tape.

What could go wrong if you skip compliance in Kazakhstan?

Let’s say you decide to skip using an EOR in Kazakhstan and hire a contractor directly. It’s fast, informal, and nobody’s asking questions. Yet.

But here’s the thing: Kazakhstan’s labor authorities are asking more questions than ever. And if you can’t answer them with registered payrolls, official contracts, and tax reports, you’re putting your business on thin ice.

Misclassification isn’t just a buzzword

Kazakhstan’s tax code treats contractors and employees very differently.

So when you hire someone full-time, give them a fixed salary, define their hours, and require exclusivity, congratulations, you’ve created an employee. If you’re not withholding taxes or paying into the pension fund (OAPF), you’re in violation of labor laws.

That violation can cost you:

• Back taxes and penalties

• Delayed or denied business licenses

• Blocked bank accounts

• Deportation risks (for foreign entities)

• And in some cases, a ban from operating locally

Local authorities don't accept "but we didn't know"

The Ministry of Labor and the State Revenue Committee don’t care if it’s your first hire in Almaty or your third junior dev in Shymkent. If you're doing business in Kazakhstan, you're expected to follow Kazakhstan's labor laws, period.

If your compliance story starts with “Well, our lawyer in London said…”, that won’t end well.

The fix is simple (and scalable)

An EOR in Kazakhstan gives you legal contracts, registered payroll, real-time tax filings, and government-recognized employment. No shell games. No risk.

You get peace of mind, your hire gets full protection, and your company gets to grow without looking over its shoulder.

Bottom line: skipping compliance here isn’t bold. It’s just expensive. Let’s not find that out the hard way.

TL;DR: Why EOR cost in Kazakhstan is a smart move, not just a line item

If you’ve read this far, you know the truth:

Hiring in Kazakhstan without setting up a local entity isn’t just possible. It’s practical.

An Employer of Record doesn’t just save you time on paperwork — it saves you from compliance risks, misclassification headaches, and unpredictable costs. You get:

• A local payroll partner

• Legally compliant contracts

• Transparent fees

• Real HR support on the ground

And you still keep what matters most: control over your team, your culture, and your budget.

Team Up’s EOR service in Kazakhstan is built for companies that want to scale smarter, not mess around with lawyers, taxes, or government filings.

Let us handle the hard part, so you can focus on growing your business.