The excess profit tax is a tax levied on additional income received by a subsurface user in excess of the standards established by tax legislation. For the first time in its modern form, the NSP was introduced in the United States during the First World War as a tax on excess profits of corporations supplying weapons. In Kazakhstan, before the introduction of the Tax Code, fixed (rental) payments were applied with a similar purpose for the NSP. They were applied to large enterprises producing oil, gas and coal, the production of which, according to experts, was highly profitable in comparison with the extraction of other minerals.
The reason for the introduction of the NSP in Kazakhstan was the inability to accurately predict the prices and cost of extraction of minerals extracted under subsurface use contracts. Despite the fact that at the time of signing the contract, the prices and cost of production may be unknown, but they can have a great impact on the balance of economic interests of the parties, i.e. on the distribution of income between the state and the subsoil user.