Kazakhstan: human rights defenders won the war with tax authorities

Some human rights organizations in Kazakhstan, including Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (KIBHR), were able to obtain the legal abolition of fines for violations of tax legislation.

In December last year, the Director of the KIBHR, a well-known human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis, said that a number of independent non-profit civil society organizations and human rights organizations were “attacked” by the tax services, which are most likely backed by the national security authorities.

“In all cases, in different regions of the country, at almost the same time, word for word, the tax authorities sent notifications of alleged violations in filling out tax reporting forms, which just relate to the timing of notification of receipt of funds from foreign sources and their spending. We are not talking about tax evasion, we are not talking about spending funds for illegal purposes, we are not talking about any illegal actions. We are talking about filling out information forms,” Zhovtis explained then. “The current Code of Administrative Offenses provides for severe administrative penalties for identifying inaccuracies in filling out these forms. If the information is found to be unreliable, the non-profit organization faces a fine of more than $ 1000 and the suspension of activities for up to 3 months. In my opinion, the purpose of this attack is political, just in order to paralyze the activities of these NGOs.”

The notices of violation of tax laws were then received by the funds: International Legal Initiative, Legal Media Center, “Erkindik Kanaty”, “Kadir Kasiet”, KIBHR, International Journalism Center “MediaNet” and “Echo”.

In January 2021, it became known that the activities of the KIBHR were suspended for 3 months, and the organization itself was fined $ 5.5 thousand.

On January 25, at the court session, at which the claims of the State Revenue Department of Auezov region of Almaty were considered, the KIBHR filed a motion to terminate the proceedings, because the statute of limitations for the “violations” had long expired. However, it was refused.

“Within ten days, the Human Rights Bureau will send a complaint against the decisions to the Department of State Revenues in the city of Almaty. Then, in case of refusal to satisfy, the courts will follow. During this period, the Bureau will continue to work in the same mode,” the KIBHR noted then.

On January 29, the International Journalist Center “MediaNet” reported about a possible suspension of activities and a fine of $ 13,000.

After this situation received a wide resonance in society and the media (including thanks to ACCA), international organizations and diplomatic missions came out in defense of Kazakhstan’s NGOs. They condemned the repression against the representatives of civil society, called for the lifting of the sanctions and bringing the legislation in line with international standards. After that, the sanctions against the mentioned NGOs were lifted.

Despite this, the civil sector of Kazakhstan still sent a petition to the President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev.

“We are sure that the persecution was connected with political motives, active civil position of the aforementioned NGOs, and the pre-election period. The reason for such conclusions was numerous procedural violations and obvious bias on the part of the inspection authorities. The current situation made it clear how vulnerable the activities of the civil sector in Kazakhstan are. The existing legislation makes it possible to paralyze the work of NGOs due to alleged violations that don’t pose any threat to the state and society,” NGOs wrote in their open appeal.

On April 5, in the Specialized Administrative Court of the city of Almaty, the decision was made on the complaints of the KIBHR and the public funds “Echo” and “International Legal Initiative”.

As ACCA was informed at the KIBHR, the tax authorities canceled their sanctions with reference to the “insignificance of the offenses”. But the Human Rights Bureau, in principle, didn’t agree with such a formulation, implying the existence of an offense and appealed against them in court.

“In fact, there were plenty of grounds for canceling the determinations in the rehabilitating order: the protocols were drawn up with gross violations, without the participation of representatives of the organization, without indicating whether the “offender” needs protection and an interpreter. The second point is that the statute of limitations (even if we assume that “offenses” took place) have long passed and the specialists of the tax authorities didn’t have the right to initiate administrative proceedings,” ACCA was said at the KIBHR.

The Bureau also added that the tax authorities were not able to substantiate their claims against the NGOs at the court hearings.

“At one of the trials, the Prosecutor’s Office suddenly had a desire to present their opinion, which took additional time to prepare. At the hearing, the prosecutor was laconic; he offered to satisfy the complaints of the Human Rights Bureau in full. Following him, the judges in unison acknowledged the plaintiffs’ complete rightness, canceled the definitions “due to lack of corpus delicti” and pointed out to the tax authorities all the violations they had committed, issuing a private ruling to the State Revenue Department. On the same grounds, the definitions in relation to Echo were canceled and the complaint against the determination under one of the three protocols in relation to the International Legal Initiative was satisfied,” the KIBHR said.