Tax returns rise by 140 per cent

At least 370,000 new taxpayers in 10 counties in  Western Kenya filed their returns by the June 30 deadline, a 140 per cent rise compared to last year.

The rise has been attributed to increased awareness campaigns and hefty fines for non-compliance. KRA's regional manager Kevin Safari attributed this to "growth in business in the counties and intensified education and stakeholder outreach initiatives".

He said the increased filing was boosted by linking the Government payment system to the online tax register – iTax, which improved chances of netting tax cheats who make millions of shillings from trading with the state. iTax is a web-based system developed by KRA to simplify revenue collection.

The system updates employee and employer ledgers and sends notifications on whether the returns have been filed successfully.