MPs who paid tax want their money back

By Paul Wafula

A number of MPs who volunteered to pay taxes in highly publicised events are quietly pushing for refunds from the taxman after the Treasury cleared their arrears.

The Standard has learnt that the legislators, whose terms have expired, are trooping back to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) demanding refunds, citing double taxation.

The KRA boss told The Standard his agency has asked the MPs seeking refund to file a declaration form before the money is paid in line with its policy.

“The way we deal with income tax, when you pay money, it goes into your personal account. It is like a bank, we bank the money. So what we are telling them is that you can only get a refund if your account is showing an overpayment.

For them (MPs), it could show that they have an overpayment because they have a payment from themselves and another from the Government,” KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini said in an interview.

“But some of them are doing other businesses. We told them you have to do a declaration because maybe you could be a lawyer who is an MP and maybe you are running a firm. So the declaration is important because before we decide whether they are due for anything, there could be other taxes we are demanding from you,” Mr Njiraini said.

He did not, however, give details on how far the processing of the refunds has gone and who has been refunded so far.

Some of the MPs who publicly paid their taxes were Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who settled Sh3.4 million in outstanding tax as the push to have legislators pay taxes gathered storm.

CLEARED ARREARS

A few days later, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, who is Raila’s running mate in the March 4 General Election also walked to Times Towers with cheques totalling Sh4.4 million. Immediate former Gachoka MP Rev Mutava Musyimi similarly paid a cheque of Sh1.9 million, as pressure mounted on MPs to pay up.

Kagundo MP Johnstone Muthama and his Gatanga counterpart Peter Kenneth, who is also eyeing presidency in the next polls, were the first two legislators to be up to date in tax remittance.

Others were Makadara MP Mike Sonko and Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu, among a host of other legislators.

Credible sources within KRA confirmed that President Kibaki, Raila and Kalonzo are among the few MPs who have not requested for refunds.

“Most that paid the taxes have filed declaration forms seeking refund of the money after the Treasury cleared their arrears,” stated the source, in what now makes their gestures as mere public relations stunt.

Mr Muthama said he was not among the MPs seeking a refund, but has instead left his extra pay to the taxman.

FAILED TO RESPOND

“I do not want a refund of any money. Parliament paid for me but the taxman can have both to collect more taxes,” Muthama said in an interview. The Standard failed to reach other legislators on their cell phones. They failed to reply to the text messages we sent them.

Should the MPs have their way, then this would be a fresh slap on millions of taxpayers who were just spared this week from paying Sh9.3 million winding up packages by President Kibaki. It is understood that some of the legislators are also seeking for all the money they can get to fund their campaigns.

Some politicians took the tax debate to a new level when they publicly walked into Times Towers, flashing their cheques.