Tax on dividends and bond coupons in Uzbekistan

When a company on the Tashkent Stock Exchange (UZSE) pays a dividend, or a bond pays its coupon, the amount that reaches your brokerage account is usually smaller than the headline figure. The difference is tax, withheld before the money is paid out. This guide explains who withholds it, at what rate, and how the rate depends on who you are: a resident individual, a non-resident or a company.

Every rule below comes from the Tax Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan as published on lex.uz, checked as of 26 September 2026. Tax law changes, sometimes every January, so check the current text of the articles cited before you rely on a number.

Withholding at source: the basic idea

Uzbek tax law makes the payer of dividends and interest a tax agent. The company that pays the dividend, or the issuer that pays the coupon, calculates the tax, keeps it back and pays it to the budget. You receive the net amount.

For resident individuals, dividends and interest are property income under Article 375 of the Tax Code, and Article 387 lists property income among the income taxed by a tax agent. For dividends paid to residents, Article 345 says the tax agent calculates the tax separately for each recipient and each payment, pays it to the budget no later than the day the dividend or interest is paid, and must give the recipient, on request, a certificate showing the income and the total tax withheld for the tax period.

In practice this means most retail investors in Uzbekistan never calculate this tax themselves. It is already gone by the time the payment arrives.

Rates for resident individuals

Article 381 sets the personal income tax rate for residents at 12% in general, with one exception written into its second part: income in the form of dividends and interest is taxed at 5%.

A worked example, with illustrative numbers only. Suppose you own 1,000 shares of a UZSE company that declares a dividend of 200 UZS per share.

• Gross dividend: 1,000 × 200 = 200,000 UZS
• Tax withheld at 5%: 10,000 UZS
• Net amount paid to you: 190,000 UZS

The same arithmetic applies to a coupon on a corporate bond. If you hold ten bonds with a face value of 1,000,000 UZS each and an annual coupon of 18%, paid twice a year, each payment is 10 × 1,000,000 × 18% ÷ 2 = 900,000 UZS gross. At 5%, 45,000 UZS is withheld and 855,000 UZS is paid. Again, these figures are only there to show the calculation.

Income that is not taxed

Article 378 lists income of individuals that is not taxed at all. Two items matter for savers:

• Item 12: winnings on state loan bonds and interest on government securities of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
• Item 13: income on savings certificates and government securities, and interest and winnings on bank deposits.

So, under the text as of the date above, the interest on your bank deposit and the income on Uzbek government securities are exempt for an individual, while dividends on shares and coupons on corporate bonds are taxed at 5%. That difference is worth keeping in mind when you compare a deposit with a bond; our guide to bank deposits versus bonds looks at it in more detail.

Rates for non-residents

If you are not a tax resident of Uzbekistan, different articles apply.

• Non-resident individuals: Article 382 sets a rate of 10% on dividends and interest from sources in Uzbekistan.
• Non-resident companies without a permanent establishment in Uzbekistan: Article 353 also sets 10% on dividends and interest. Article 351 lists these payments among the income from which the paying Uzbek company must withhold tax, and adds that income on government bonds and other government securities of Uzbekistan, and on international bonds of Uzbek legal entities, is not taxed.

Under Article 354, the tax on a non-resident's income is calculated and paid in soʻm at the Central Bank of Uzbekistan exchange rate on the day the income is paid.

Double tax treaties

Uzbekistan has tax treaties with many countries, and a treaty can reduce or remove the withholding rate. Article 357 lets the tax agent apply the treaty rate itself, on two main conditions: the recipient gives the agent a document confirming tax residence in the treaty country no later than the payment date, and the recipient is the actual owner of the income (the Code's term is the person with the actual right to it). If you are a non-resident investor, ask your broker early which documents they need, because a certificate that arrives after the payment date does not help that payment.

Rates for Uzbek companies

A company that is a tax resident of Uzbekistan and receives dividends is taxed under the profit tax rules:

• Dividends: Article 343 says dividends paid by a legal entity to an Uzbek tax resident are taxed at source under Article 345, and the recipient then deducts them when working out its own taxable base, so the same dividend is not taxed twice. Item 11 of Article 337 sets the rate for dividend income at 5%.
• Interest: under Article 344, interest paid to a resident is generally included in the recipient's taxable base and taxed as part of its profit. The general profit tax rate in item 12 of Article 337 is 15%, and banks pay 20% under item 1. Part two of Article 344 makes an exception for interest that resident companies pay to non-profit and budget organisations on deposits, which is taxed at source.

Company taxation has many more special cases than individual taxation, so a business should rely on its accountant rather than on a summary like this one.

Summary of the rates

• Resident individual: dividends 5%, interest and coupons 5%, with bank deposit interest and government securities exempt (Articles 378 and 381).
• Non-resident individual: dividends 10%, interest and coupons 10% (Article 382).
• Non-resident company: dividends 10%, interest and coupons 10%, with government securities exempt (Articles 351 and 353).
• Resident company: dividends 5%, interest taxed within profit at 15%, or 20% for banks (Articles 337, 343 and 344).

Treaty rates, where a treaty applies and the documents are in place, can be lower than the rates in this list.

What this means for your yield

Tax changes the comparison between investments. A bond with an 18% coupon that is taxed at 5% leaves a resident individual 17.1% before any price change, while a deposit at a lower rate may be tax-free. A share's dividend yield, explained in our guide to P/E ratio, dividends and dividend yield, is normally quoted before tax, so the amount you actually receive is 5% lower for a resident.

When you look at announced payments on the Finmind payouts calendar, remember that the tax is withheld from the announced dividend or coupon, so a resident receives about 95% of it. How to read coupon terms is covered in bond yield, coupon and price, and you can browse listed bonds on the UZSE bonds page.

This article is for education only and is not investment advice. Investing in securities involves risk, including the loss of money you invest.