The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has reported that more than 5.5 million taxpayers filed their tax returns by the midnight June 30 deadline, reflecting a 19 per cent growth from last year.
Some 4.4 million filed returns in 2020. Taxpayers file returns for the previous year, with the filing period running from January 1 to June 30.
The number of taxpayers using iTax has been growing over the past few years, rising from 3.6 million in 2019 to 4.4 million in 2020 and 2021’s 5.5 million.
But KRA still reports that some 600,000 of the 6.1 million taxpayers registered on iTax failed to file, even as it added the number of last-minute filers was down this year.
“The growth in the numbers show positive progress in tax compliance, a move that is anticipated to further drive the country towards economic growth. As has been the case in the previous years, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Tax Service Offices did not experience long queues during the last days of filing,” the agency said in a statement yesterday.
“This is attributed to efficiency of the iTax platform, effective taxpayer sensitisation on filing of returns and efficient taxpayer support services through the KRA Contact Centre and Tax Service Offices across the country as well as extension of working staff hours.”
KRA data shows that some 1.7 million Kenyans filed their returns in the last 10 days, as the agency had by June 20 announced that only 3.8 million taxpayers had filed their returns by that point.
The authority said it projects to increase the number of active taxpayers by two million to 8.2 million by end of June 2023.
KRA said improvements on iTax, including enriching it to include an auto-populated return for taxpayers with employment income as the only source of income, had eased users’ experience and made it easier for taxpayers to file returns.
“Taxpayers in this category, whose annual tax returns constitute the bulk of all annual tax returns, are only required to fill in annual pension and tax relief details in the respective fields provided to complete the return process,” the statement by KRA Commissioner General Githii Mburu said.
The authority urged Kenyans to form a habit of filing returns early, as the six-month filing season begins in January.
“Just like tax payment, filing of tax returns is an important tax compliance tenet, which is put in place to ascertain tax compliance,” it stated.
Late filing of tax returns is penalised with a Sh2,000 fine or 5 per cent of tax due, whichever is higher, while non-individuals are fined Sh20,000 or 5 per cent of the tax due.
