One million people fail to file returns, face KRA fines
Kenyans on the queue at Kenya Revenue Authority Mombasa head office in rush to file their tax returns.
What you need to know:
- Companies pay a Sh10,000 penalty or five per cent of the tax payable in the year the return captures or whichever is higher.
The law requires anyone with a personal identification number to file returns irrespective of employment status.
Some 953,971 taxpayers did not file their returns with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) by the June 30, 2024 deadline, exposing them to penalties by the taxman.
Official data from KRA shows that 8,046, 029 Kenyan taxpayers had filed their returns by June 30 against a targeted nine million.
The number is 1.7 million more compared to those who filed their returns as of the June 30, 2023 deadline. Failure to meet the tax filing deadline is an offence that attracts a 2,000 fine or five per cent of the individual's tax bill, whichever is higher.
Companies pay a Sh10,000 penalty or five per cent of the tax payable in the year the return captures or whichever is higher.
“About 8,046,029 taxpayers had filed their returns by the June 30 deadline,” said the taxman in an online update on its social media pages yesterday.
The KRA has been processing over 100,000 filings daily a few days to the June 30th deadline, it reported on June 27. Normally the daily numbers are known to rise as the deadline approaches.
To allow more taxpayers to file their returns, the taxman extended its working hours in all service centres around the country, and select Huduma Centres and contact outlets to assist taxpayers in filing their returns within the timelines. Filing returns has emerged as one of the taxman’s preferred ways to net tax cheats and grow the income tax segments amid struggles to meet collection targets.
The law requires anyone with a personal identification number to file returns irrespective of employment status.
KRA recorded its highest shortfall in tax collections from employees despite introduction of two new tax bands targeting top earners, even as the treasury projected that the taxman would miss this year’s targets by about Sh300 billion.
The quarterly report published by the National Treasury shows that the KRA missed its pay-as-you-earn (Paye) target by Sh72.3 billion in the first nine months of the last financial year which ended on June 30.
