This archive report was first published on 10 June 2020.
On June 10, 2020, the High Court of Kenya delivered a significant blow to Van Den Berg Limited, a Dutch flower firm operating in the country, by ordering it to pay KSh1.3 billion in taxes.
The order came after the High Court dismissed a judicial review application filed by the company in April 2016, seeking to revoke a tax assessment issued by the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes.
According to the court ruling, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) had selected Van Den Berg for a tax audit for the period 2008 to 2013. Following the audit, the Authority issued a Notice of Assessment of KSh1.3 billion in respect of the company's Corporation tax, Withholding Income Tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and KEBS Levy.
Van Den Berg subsequently filed a case challenging the assessment and objecting to the decision by the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes. However, the High Court disagreed with the company's position and ruled that the issues before it were not of a judicial review nature, but should instead be solved before the Tax Appeals Tribunal, striking out the case and awarding costs to KRA.
Van den Berg is a rose-grower with nurseries in the Netherlands, Kenya, and China. The Dutch firm also has a processing facility at Floraholland Naaldwijk used to add value to the Dutch and Kenyan flowers.
The flower industry is a significant contributor to Kenya's economy, with the country being the world's 4th largest flower exporter. In 2018 alone, cut flowers earned the country KSh113 billion, creating jobs for close to 150,000 people.
