This archive report was first published on 15 January 2020.
January 15, 2020, marked a significant shift in the Kenya Revenue Authority's (KRA) approach to tackling tax evasion. The taxman has compiled a list of high-risk tax debtors and will deploy its employees to sit in the accounts departments of their companies to recover unpaid taxes.
According to KRA Commissioner for Domestic Taxes Department Elizabeth Meyo, those classified as high-risk debtors have ignored tax payment plans. Enforcement measures include posting KRA officers as resident officers within the premises of high-risk debtors to monitor daily sales and ensure taxes are being paid.
The taxman is preparing to hire 1,000 intelligence and enforcement officers who will identify and arrest wealthy tax cheats. The agency has been allocated additional cash to hire the new staff, with a target of raising Sh50 billion in the period ending June next year.
Parliament's Budget and Appropriations Committee had requested the Treasury to provide an additional Sh2 billion to enable the taxman hire more employees. This follows months of investigations into rich people's sources of income and their expenditure against their tax remittances.
KRA has also been analysing companies' financial dealings, especially firms doing business with the national government and counties, to unearth tax cheats by matching their payments and income declared to the taxman.
“Enforcement measures include posting KRA officers as resident officers within the premises of high-risk debtors to monitor daily sales and ensure taxes are being paid,” Ms Meyo said in email responses to the Business Daily.
