Enterprise Uzbekistan: What the New Digital Jurisdiction Law Means for Business Accounting and Automation

The Enterprise Uzbekistan Law: What Happened

On August 19, 2026, the President of Uzbekistan signed the constitutional law "On the International Center for Digital Technologies" — the official name of the project known under the brand Enterprise Uzbekistan. The document establishes a special legal regime on the territory of IT Park in Tashkent and will take effect roughly five months after signing. The special regime will remain in force until the end of 2100 — meaning lawmakers are setting a planning horizon of decades, not another budget cycle.

The center's key feature isn't a set of isolated tax breaks, but the fact that it will operate under an independent legal system built on the principles of English law and the standards of leading international financial centers. Decisions made by the jurisdiction's governing bodies will take priority over a number of other national regulations, and disputes involving center participants will fall under the jurisdiction of the Tashkent International Commercial Court. For international technology companies, this means being able to operate under familiar, predictable legal structures instead of adapting business processes from scratch to a new national jurisdiction.

Who the Special Regime Is For, and Why

The project's initiators are explicit: the point of the center isn't tax incentives as such, but removing bureaucratic barriers to testing new technologies, launching digital products, and hiring foreign specialists. Large technology companies are expected to operate within Enterprise Uzbekistan, including firms testing areas such as autonomous vehicles and self-driving taxis — related relaxations were already being discussed in early August 2026.

Still, the tax framework is spelled out in reasonable detail. The general taxation model inside the center includes corporate income tax, VAT, and personal income tax — the basic taxes don't disappear. But export operations and activity conducted directly within the center qualify for a zero rate of corporate income tax, VAT, and personal income tax for foreign employees. Investors are additionally exempted from dividend tax and certain other investment income. The result is a hybrid model: a standard tax track for operations inside Uzbekistan, and a preferential track for export and center-based activity.

How the Center Differs from IT Park Residency

Uzbekistan isn't building a preferential regime for the tech sector from scratch — IT Park residents have enjoyed exemption from corporate income tax, VAT, and a range of other benefits for more than five years already. What sets Enterprise Uzbekistan apart is the scale of the legal construction: it's not another set of incentives layered onto the existing national legal system, but effectively a parallel jurisdiction with its own regulatory sandbox, elements of English law, and a separate court. For current IT Park residents, this means the emergence of another, considerably heavier tier of status — designed primarily for large international companies rather than local development studios and integrators.

What This Means for Local Business

For Uzbekistan's IT companies and their clients, the effect won't be direct — it will play out at the industry level. The arrival of large technology players means tougher competition for skilled talent, but also new orders, partnerships, and a higher bar for the quality of digital products and the accounting processes behind them. Companies currently working with 1C, Bitrix24, or their own web platforms should expect more demanding partners and, likely, more complex contract structures — including elements of foreign law. Center residents will likely build their processes to international standards of corporate governance and reporting, which means local contractors and subcontractors should prepare in advance for stricter SLAs, regular process audits, and higher data protection requirements.

What to Watch During the Transition Period

The law takes effect roughly five months after signing, which means that until then, the exact procedure for applying the incentives, reporting forms, and the technical process for registering center participants will likely be clarified through additional regulations. A similar pattern has already played out with other tax innovations in Uzbekistan: the law gets adopted quickly, while detailed instructions and forms follow several months later. Businesses planning to operate within the center's framework or with its residents should build this transition period into their plans rather than assuming every technical detail will be clear the moment the law takes effect.

A second point worth noting is that decisions by the center's jurisdictional bodies take priority over a number of national regulations, and disputes are handled by the Tashkent International Commercial Court. For local companies signing contracts with center residents, this means reading the governing law and jurisdiction clause more carefully — a standard contract template built for Uzbekistan's general civil jurisdiction may not account for these specifics.

Why This Is First and Foremost an Accounting Question, Not Just a Legal One

A hybrid tax model — with different rates for domestic versus export/center activity — in practice requires separate accounting. If a company simultaneously runs operations inside Uzbekistan on standard terms and activity within the center or for export, these streams need to be correctly separated in the accounting system from day one, not reconstructed retroactively before an audit. A mistake at this stage is usually far more costly than setting up the accounting correctly in advance.

Standard 1C configurations used in Uzbekistan already support separate accounting by activity type, but adapting to the new regime will likely require additional configuration: separate sub-accounts and cost categories for center operations, correctly linking zero VAT and income tax rates to specific contracts and counterparties, and automatically generating the documentation package for tax reporting under each track separately. That's a proper implementation task, not a quick fix in a reference catalog.

Practical Steps for Business Right Now

• Audit your current accounting system — check whether it supports separate accounting by activity type and rate, or whether it needs modification.
• Plan your chart of accounts and reference architecture in advance — cost items, contracts, and counterparties should be structured so reporting across different tax tracks is generated automatically rather than manually.
• Prepare your staff — accounting and finance teams need to understand the logic of zero rates for export and center operations ahead of time to avoid mistakes in the first reporting periods after the law takes effect.
• Watch for implementing regulations — the law takes effect in roughly five months, and a package of clarifying regulations is expected during that period to define the exact procedure for applying the incentives.
• Check integration with government digital services — based on previous reforms, new regimes are almost always accompanied by requirements for electronic reporting and data exchange with relevant agencies.

Summary

The Enterprise Uzbekistan law isn't a narrow tax measure — it establishes a separate legal and economic environment for large technology players, designed to last decades. For most local companies, the law doesn't create direct mandatory changes right away, but it does raise the bar for accounting transparency, the speed of adapting business processes, and the quality of partnership contracts. Companies that may end up working with center residents or expanding into exports would do well to check now whether their accounting system is ready for separate accounting across different tax tracks — that gives the business time to configure things properly, instead of scrambling once the law takes effect.