How to pay contractors in Uzbekistan

How to choose: five questions for paying a contractor in Uzbekistan

1. Is the contractor self-employed or an individual entrepreneur? Ask before you pick a tool, because it changes what the bank expects. A self-employed freelancer can receive foreign currency from a non-resident without an entry in the state foreign-trade system (EISFTO) and can work off an accepted offer, electronic messages or an invoice (PP-4742, item 4, checked 2026-09-28). The catch is the activity list: from 1 January 2026 it shrank from 104 to 72 activities. Software development, testing and web development stay; copywriting and translation are gone (gazeta.uz; buxgalter.uz, checked 2026-09-28). A writer or translator now has to register as an IE. An IE’s export contract has to be registered in EISFTO, and the IE reports each exported service against a signed act by the 20th of the following month (buxgalter.uz on Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 560, checked 2026-09-28). If self-employed: any rail works, and an invoice-only tool is enough. If IE: pick a platform that issues a signed contract and an act for every payout, or be ready to produce both yourself.

2. One contractor or a team? One contractor, one invoice a month or less: a direct USD bank transfer does the job, and you keep the contract and invoices in your own files. From about three contractors or a fixed monthly payout cycle, the admin of chasing invoices, acts and bank details one by one costs more than a platform fee. If one: bank transfer or a money-transfer service. If a team: a contractor-payout platform with batch payouts and generated documents.

3. Does your accounting need closing documents? If an auditor, an IFRS close or a due-diligence data room will ask what each payment was for, you need a contract, an invoice and an acceptance act per payment, all in the same name and amount. Money-transfer services leave you with an invoice at most. If yes: a contractor-payout platform that generates the contract, invoice and act. If an invoice is enough: a direct transfer or a transfer service.

4. How much do you pay each contractor per month? Pricing comes in three shapes, all shown on the cards below: a percentage of each payout (around 3% at the corridor platforms), a flat monthly fee per contractor (roughly $29–$49 at the global platforms), or a flat fee per withdrawal. At 3%, a $1,000 payout costs $30 and a $3,000 payout costs $90. A $29–$49 subscription breaks even at roughly $1,000–$1,600 a month per contractor. Below about $1,000 a month per contractor: percentage pricing is cheaper. Above about $1,600: a flat subscription or per-withdrawal fee usually wins on fees. Check the FX leg too: card payouts to Uzbek cards land in USD or EUR, so paying from GBP or another currency adds a conversion.

5. Does the work look like employment? One client, fixed hours, a manager and no end date make a civil contract look like a job, and the Labour Code in force since 30 April 2023 lets a civil-law contract for personal labour be recognised as employment (lex.uz, checked 2026-09-28). Our hiring guide covers the classification rules. If the work is project-based: a contractor-payout platform is enough. If it is a full-time role for you alone: use a Contractor of Record, which reduces the misclassification risk, or move the person to an Employer of Record such as Deel or Remote. 4dev acts as a Contractor of Record: it is the contracting party for each contractor, which reduces reclassification risk.

Payout rails that work in Uzbekistan in 2026

Sources: Wise on USD by SWIFT and sending to Uzbekistan; Mellow’s tested Uzbek cards (updated 1 December 2025); NBU’s USD and UZS Visa/Mastercard range; Payoneer pricing, withdrawals and receiver rules. All checked 2026-09-28.

Inside Uzbekistan, prices for goods and services must be set in som, while individuals may carry out current international FX transactions without restriction under Law No. 573 on Currency Regulation (Azizov & Partners, checked 2026-09-28).

What the contractor needs

• Self-employed. The contractor registers with the tax service; since 1 November 2025 this can be done remotely through digital platforms with biometric checks (PwC, checked 2026-09-28). The activity must be on the 2026 list of 72; software development is item 32 (yaran.uz, checked 2026-09-28). From 2026 the self-employed must issue invoices for their services, and the old exemption for income up to UZS 100 million is gone (PwC, same page).
• Individual entrepreneur. A registered IE signs the export contract, registers it in EISFTO and issues an invoice and an acceptance act for each period.
• Both. A foreign-currency account or a USD/EUR card at an Uzbek bank, and the 1% turnover tax on turnover up to UZS 1 billion a year (PP-247, checked 2026-09-28).

Contract terms, IP assignment and classification are in our hiring guide.

Documents and tax on the payer’s side

Withholding. A foreign client withholds nothing in Uzbekistan. PIT withholding there is done by tax agents such as employers, and residents with foreign-source income or income from non-tax-agents file their own return by 1 April (PwC, checked 2026-09-28). The general PIT rate is 12%, while a registered self-employed person or IE pays the 1% turnover tax described above; the fixed-PIT regime for IEs ended on 1 January 2026 (PwC, checked 2026-09-28).

US payers. Collect a Form W-8BEN before the first payment. A foreign person who provides one is exempt from backup withholding and Form 1099 reporting (IRS, checked 2026-09-28). The 1973 US–USSR income tax treaty still covers Uzbekistan, so the contractor can claim treaty status on the form (IRS, checked 2026-09-28).

What to file per contractor:

• the signed contract, or the offer the self-employed contractor accepted;
• each invoice;
• a signed acceptance act for each period where the contractor is an IE;
• the payment confirmation;
• proof of the contractor’s self-employed or IE registration;
• Form W-8BEN for US payers.

Where it breaks

• The IE’s contract isn’t in EISFTO. Banks will not process payments under a foreign-trade contract until it shows in EISFTO (buxgalter.uz, checked 2026-09-28). If a transfer to an IE stalls, ask for the contract’s EISFTO number before you resend.
• The activity dropped off the self-employed list. Copywriters, translators and photographers lost self-employed status on 1 January 2026 (gazeta.uz; buxgalter.uz, checked 2026-09-28). A contractor still invoicing as self-employed for those services is outside the regime, and the EISFTO exemption goes with it.
• The card isn’t on the tested list. Card payouts go through on the specific banks and card ranges each provider has tested. Mellow’s list has one bank that takes EUR only (help.mellow.io, checked 2026-09-28). Get the card’s bank and currency before the first payout.
• Fees disappear along the SWIFT chain. Wise warns that SWIFT relies on banks that don’t disclose their fees upfront (wise.com, checked 2026-09-28). The contractor may receive less than the invoice, so agree in the contract who pays intermediary charges.
• The contractor asks for a Wise balance or PayPal through Payoneer. Neither is available: Uzbekistan isn’t on Wise’s list of countries where residents can hold money (wise.com, checked 2026-09-28), and Payoneer won’t route PayPal-funded payments to accounts registered there.
• USDT looks simpler than it is. Since 1 January 2023, residents may buy and sell crypto only through licensed domestic providers, for som, and foreign exchanges are off limits (Elliptic, checked 2026-09-28). A stablecoin payout leaves the contractor with an asset they can only sell legally through a licensed local provider.

For the regional picture, see paying contractors across the CIS; the full field of platforms is in the contractor payouts rating.