The noble responsibility bestowed upon every citizen above 18 to pay taxes to fund government programmes is one that should be shouldered by all.
It cannot be borne by only a few with most getting away with paying little or nothing at all. That is why the plan by the new administration to bring more people from different sectors into the tax bracket is laudable.
The National Treasury has already set lofty targets, with a plan to collect Sh4.8 trillion in tax revenue by June 2027.
That means an additional tax implication of Sh1.1 trillion on top of the Treasury’s earlier projections of Sh3.77 trillion. With such a target, the plan to focus even more on landlords and betting companies are welcome.
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) intends to map all rental properties in a bid to integrate them into their system so as to ensure that the thousands of landlords who do not pay tax on their rental income are brought into the fold.
Another proposal is to ensure that betting firms—which often make billions of shillings every year—pay their taxes daily, with a current target of Sh500 million at 1 am.
These kinds of measures need to be expanded even further to ensure everybody pays their fair share of tax.
At present, workers in formal employment, who make less than five per cent of the population, are in the KRA system and, hence, pay their income tax.
However, the majority of Kenyans, some of whom make a lot more money in various businesses, especially in the informal Jua Kali sector, do not pay as much as they should in tax—or even do not at all.
Similarly, while 759,164 businesses had registered for corporation tax, just 11.12 per cent (84,428) of them paid the tax in the year to June 2022—meaning that a chunk of the tax burden rests on the shoulders of a few.
The government’s efforts to expand the tax base are, therefore, not misplaced and should be supported by every Kenyan with everybody doing their fair share in the nation-building civic duty of tax payment.
