By PETER OPIYO
Constitutional Office holders will now have to pay taxes on their allowances after Parliament approved a Bill to the effect.

MPs deleted the Constitutional Offices Remuneration Act, Cap 423 to subject allowances of the Chief Justice, Attorney General, Judges and Auditor General to the tax man.

Others whose allowances would be taxed are members of the Public Service Commission and commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

The Act was deleted when Parliament passed the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, 2012. The Bill is an Omnibus legislation that amends various existing statutes. It was passed last Thursday.

The deletion of the Constitutional Offices Remuneration Act is in line with the Constitution that requires all state officers to pay taxes.

Article 210 (3) of the Constitution states: “no law may exclude or authorize the exclusion of a State Officer from payment of tax by reason of the office held by that State officer or the nature of work of the State Officer.”

They will join MPs whose taxes are being paid for by Parliament since the Constitution was promulgated in August 2010.

The promulgation of the Constitution has seen Members of Parliament subjected to taxation on their allowances. Though MPs have protested the move Kenya Revenue Authority vowed to go ahead with the exercise as it seeks to extend the tax bracket.

This has seen Parliament set aside Sh500 million to pay for MPs’ taxes in the financial year beginning July to take care of the monies the legislators must pay the tax collector for the remainder of their term.

“This amount will cater for payment of taxes for MPs for the period remaining till the next parliament,” a line in the Parliament’s financial estimates read.

This would be on top of Sh2 billion that was taken from the Contingency Fund last year to foot the MPs’ tax arrears for 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 financial years.

The MPs have opposed a move to tax their allowances that amount to Sh651,000 per month, following the promulgation of the Constitution in August 2010 even after Kenya Revenue Authority wrote to the Speaker asking Parliament to remit the taxes.

The law makers pay tax only on their basic salaries of Sh200,000 per month and
their allowances go untaxed.