Freelancing in Uzbekistan 2026: IT Park 0% Tax Regime

Written by the jobbers.io editorial team. Last updated September 2026. Figures cross-checked against IT Park Uzbekistan’s own published rules, Uzbekistan’s Tax Code, and independent tax-advisory sources — see the Sources section below.

If you’ve spent any time in freelancer forums or Telegram groups talking about Central Asia, you’ve probably seen it: “0% tax in Uzbekistan!” thrown around like a settled fact. It’s not wrong, exactly. It’s just incomplete — and the missing piece happens to be the one thing that determines whether a solo freelancer can actually use it.

Quick answer: IT Park Uzbekistan does offer a genuine 0% corporate tax and 0% social tax regime, plus a reduced 7.5% personal income tax for employees. But individual freelancers cannot register with IT Park directly — only legal entities can. To use the 0% regime, a freelancer has to incorporate a company first. Most solo freelancers instead use Uzbekistan’s separate self-employed regime, which got a lot cheaper on 1 January 2026 but was never 0%.

Below is what each option actually involves, what changed for 2026, and how to think about which one (if either) makes sense for you.

What Is IT Park Uzbekistan, Exactly?

IT Park Uzbekistan — formally the Technological Park of Software Products and Information Technologies — was set up under Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 589, dated 15 July 2019, “On measures for organizing the activities of the Technological Park of Software Products and Information Technologies.” It operates on what Uzbek law calls an “extraterritorial” basis: resident companies don’t need to be physically located in a park campus in Tashkent, they can be registered and operating anywhere in the country and still hold resident status.

The program has pulled in hundreds of domestic and international tech companies, including development centers set up by firms from the EU, the US, and Russia. It’s a real piece of Uzbekistan’s push to grow IT exports, not a marketing gimmick — and the tax breaks are correspondingly real. They’re just structured around companies, not individuals.

The 0% Tax Regime — What It Actually Includes

Here’s the comparison between Uzbekistan’s standard tax rates and what an IT Park resident company pays:

A few extras worth knowing about: resident companies also get a customs duty exemption (until 1 January 2028) on imported equipment, components, and software not produced domestically. Foreign shareholders of export-heavy residents (more than 50% of revenue from exports) can access a reduced 5% dividend tax rate until 1 January 2040. And foreign IT companies supplying services to an IT Park resident are themselves exempt from Uzbek corporate tax until 1 January 2030, if that resident’s export revenue tops $10 million a year — a provision aimed squarely at larger outsourcing arrangements, not solo freelancers.

The 7.5% reduced PIT rate traces back to Presidential Decree No. UP-5099 (30 June 2017), and the current package’s stability is backed by Presidential Decree No. UP-229 of 28 December 2024, which locks in the tax terms for IT Park residents through 2028.

The Catch Most Articles Skip: Freelancers Can’t Join IT Park Directly

Here’s the part that gets glossed over. IT Park’s own published FAQ is blunt about it: an individual entrepreneur cannot become an IT Park resident, because an individual entrepreneur is, by definition, a person rather than a legal entity — and only legal entities are eligible for resident status. That means a freelancer operating as a sole individual, however much they earn, has no direct path into the 0% regime. Full stop.

This isn’t a loophole or an oversight. It’s baked into the structure: IT Park residency is a corporate status with corporate reporting obligations, and Uzbekistan draws a hard legal line between a company and the person who owns it.

So How Do Freelancers Actually Get the 0% Rate?

The workaround is straightforward in concept, more involved in practice: incorporate.

1. Pick an activity that’s actually on the list. IT Park residents must operate exclusively within the approved activities set out in Resolution No. 589 and its annexes (published on lex.uz) — broadly software development, IT outsourcing, and related digital services. If what you do doesn’t match, residency won’t be granted.
2. Register a legal entity. Usually a single-founder LLC. Foreign founders can do this, though opening the company bank account tends to be the slow part — banks generally want the founder or director to appear in person for compliance checks.
3. Submit a business plan and apply. The application goes to the IT Park Directorate along with your founding documents and an economically justified business plan matching your declared activity.
4. Wait roughly 15 working days for the Directorate’s decision.
5. Once approved, pay yourself as an employee. Your company’s profit sits at 0% CIT. Your own salary, drawn as an employee of the company you founded, is taxed at the reduced 7.5% PIT instead of the standard 12%.

Worth knowing before you go this route: IT Park does enforce the “exclusively approved activities” rule and ongoing reporting requirements. It isn’t just paperwork — in one compliance clean-up, more than 100 companies had their resident status revoked for falling out of line with the requirements. This route makes the most sense for freelancers or small agencies with steady, substantial income where the tax saving clearly outweighs the incorporation and compliance overhead. It’s a poor fit for someone testing the waters with occasional gig income.

The Simpler Route: Self-Employed or Individual Entrepreneur Status

Most solo freelancers based in Uzbekistan skip the company route entirely and register as self-employed or as an individual entrepreneur through the Soliq mobile app instead. It’s not a 0% regime — that benefit really is company-only — but it’s dramatically simpler, and 2026 brought real changes here too:

• The old tax-free threshold is gone. Until 31 December 2025, self-employed individuals earning up to 100 million som a year (roughly $8,400) paid no turnover tax at all. That exemption was abolished from 1 January 2026 under Presidential Decree No. PP-247 (12 August 2025).
• A new flat rate replaced it. From 1 January 2026, individual entrepreneurs and self-employed persons with annual turnover up to 1 billion som (roughly $84,000) pay a flat 1% turnover tax — down from the previous 4%.
• The fixed-amount PIT option for individual entrepreneurs was cancelled from the same date.
• Social tax is voluntary for the self-employed — you can contribute at least 1 base calculation unit per year (currently 412,000–440,000 som, roughly $34–37) if you want the years to count toward your pension record. It isn’t mandatory.

No business plan, no 15-day review, no restriction to a fixed activity list. For most people earning freelance income while living in or connected to Uzbekistan, this is the realistic starting point — and the 1% rate, while nowhere near 0%, is still low by regional standards.

Relocating for IT Work? The IT Visa Angle

If you’re a foreign freelancer thinking about actually moving to Uzbekistan, the IT visa is worth understanding — but keep it separate in your head from the tax question, because it’s an immigration status, not a tax rate.

Two categories matter most for freelancers:

• IT specialist: you’re employed by an IT Park resident legal entity in an IT specialty, and can show income from IT activity of at least $30,000 over the preceding 12 months.
• Founder: you’re an individual founder holding a stake of at least $30,000 in the charter capital of an IT Park resident company (this threshold was raised from an earlier $10,000 figure as part of 2026 rule updates).

Either category gets you a visa valid for three years, letting you work in Uzbekistan without a separate work permit. The 2026 rule changes also expanded eligibility to cover startup-program participants and foreign academics in IT fields. None of this by itself lowers your tax rate — you still need the underlying company to be an actual IT Park resident for the 0% benefits to apply to you.

What Changed for 2026 (So You’re Not Working Off Last Year’s Rules)

Uzbekistan’s tax code moves fast. If you read something written before this year, assume at least one of these has shifted:

• 1 January 2026 — the 100-million-som exemption for self-employed turnover tax was abolished; the flat 1% turnover tax for IEs and self-employed (up to 1 billion som) took effect; the fixed-amount PIT option for individual entrepreneurs was cancelled.
• 1 April 2026 — payment organizations, payment system operators, marketplaces, and microfinance organizations lost the tax and customs incentives previously available to them as IT Park or technopark residents. If your “IT” business is actually a fintech, payments, or marketplace product, this matters directly.
• 1 June 2026 — the mandatory VAT registration threshold rose to roughly 12,000 base calculation units (about 4.94 billion som), and a voluntary simplified 6% VAT option (with no input VAT credit) became available.

The core IT Park package for software and IT-services companies — 0% CIT, 0% social tax, 7.5% employee PIT — wasn’t touched by these changes and is protected through at least 1 January 2028 under the existing rate-stability decree.

Getting Paid as a Freelancer, Regardless of Which Tax Route You Pick

Your tax registration and your client pipeline are two different problems, and it’s easy to over-focus on the first while the second quietly matters more to your actual take-home pay. A lot of freelance marketplaces take a commission on every payment before it even reaches you — on top of whatever percentage the tax office takes. jobbers.io takes a different approach: it charges no commission on completed work, and freelancers and clients negotiate and settle payment terms directly between themselves. If you’re weighing whether the incorporation route is worth it, keeping more of every payment from day one changes that math — a lower effective tax rate matters less when a platform is already taking 15–20% off the top.

Whichever registration path you go with in Uzbekistan, it’s worth browsing freelance jobs on a platform structured this way before assuming a bigger tax saving automatically means a bigger net income.

Important: Verify These Numbers Before You Act

Every figure in this guide — tax rates, thresholds, decree numbers, effective dates — was accurate as of 1 September 2026, cross-checked against IT Park Uzbekistan’s own published materials, Uzbekistan’s Tax Code, and independent tax-advisory sources. Uzbekistan has changed several of these rules more than once in the past two years, and further changes are likely. Som-to-dollar conversions in this article use an approximate exchange rate from late August 2026 (around 11,800–12,000 som per dollar) and will drift as the currency moves.

Before you register a company, apply for IT Park residency, register as self-employed, or make any decision with tax or immigration consequences, verify the current rules directly with IT Park Uzbekistan, the State Tax Committee, or a licensed Uzbek tax advisor. This article is general information for planning purposes — it is not legal, tax, or immigration advice.

Sources

• IT Park Uzbekistan — official FAQ on resident status eligibility
• IT Park Uzbekistan — residency program
• lex.uz — approved list of IT Park resident activities
• PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — Uzbekistan, Individual: Significant Developments
• PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — Uzbekistan, Corporate: Tax Credits and Incentives
• EY — Uzbekistan Tax Updates Effective from 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Can individual freelancers register directly with IT Park Uzbekistan for the 0% tax rate?

No. Only legal entities registered in Uzbekistan — LLCs and registered foreign enterprises — can hold IT Park resident status. An individual entrepreneur is, by definition, not a legal entity, so IT Park’s own rules exclude that path. Freelancers who want the 0% corporate tax and 0% social tax benefits need to incorporate a company first and get that company approved as an IT Park resident.

What exactly is the “0% tax regime” that IT Park offers?

IT Park resident companies pay 0% corporate income tax instead of the standard 15%, 0% social tax instead of 12%, and are exempt from VAT, property tax, and land tax. Employees of resident companies — including founders who put themselves on payroll — pay personal income tax at a reduced 7.5% rate instead of the usual 12%, guaranteed at least until 1 January 2028.

If I can’t join IT Park as an individual, how do freelancers use it at all?

The common route is to incorporate a single-founder LLC in an activity covered by IT Park’s approved list, apply for IT Park resident status for that LLC (roughly a 15-working-day review), and then pay yourself a salary as an employee of your own company. The company’s profit stays untaxed at 0% CIT, and your salary is taxed at 7.5% PIT instead of 12%.

What if I don’t want to set up a company?

You can register as a self-employed person or individual entrepreneur through the Soliq mobile app instead. As of 1 January 2026, this group pays a flat 1% turnover tax on annual turnover up to 1 billion som (roughly $84,000), down from the previous 4%. It’s simpler than the IT Park route, though it doesn’t come with 0% corporate tax — that benefit is company-only.

Is there still a tax-free threshold for small freelance income?

Not anymore. Until the end of 2025, self-employed individuals earning up to 100 million som a year (about $8,400) paid no turnover tax at all. That exemption was abolished from 1 January 2026 under Presidential Decree No. PP-247, so even modest freelance income is now subject to the 1% turnover tax.

Do I need an IT visa to freelance from Uzbekistan?

Not if you’re already a citizen or resident. The IT visa exists mainly for foreigners relocating for IT work, in categories like “IT specialist” (employed by an IT Park resident company, minimum $30,000 in IT income over the prior 12 months) and “founder” (holding at least a $30,000 stake in an IT Park resident company). It’s an immigration status, not a tax rate, and doesn’t by itself grant the 0% regime.

Are the IT Park benefits guaranteed to stay the same?

The core package — 0% CIT, 0% social tax, 7.5% PIT — is protected by a rate-stability decree through 1 January 2028. But the regime isn’t static: from 1 April 2026, payment organizations, payment system operators, marketplaces, and microfinance companies lost their IT Park incentives, and the self-employed regime changed materially on 1 January 2026. Always check the current rules before you commit.

What activities qualify a company for IT Park residency?

IT Park residents must operate exclusively within the list of approved activities set out in Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 589 (15 July 2019) and its annexes — broadly software development, IT outsourcing, data processing, and related digital services. A business plan matching one of these activities is required as part of the application.

Does IT Park actually enforce these rules, or is it mostly paperwork?

It’s enforced. IT Park’s own registry has periodically stripped resident status from companies that stopped meeting the requirements — over 100 in one clean-up round alone. Treat the “exclusively approved activities” condition and ongoing reporting obligations as real compliance work, not a formality.

Where can freelancers find international clients while sorting out their Uzbekistan tax setup?

Your tax registration and your client pipeline are separate problems. Many international freelance marketplaces charge a commission that stacks on top of whatever Uzbekistan takes in tax. Browsing freelance jobs on a platform that skips the commission and lets freelancer and client agree on payment directly can make the overall math simpler, whichever tax route you end up choosing.