Noose tightens on tax cheats as KRA goes high-tech

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will from Thursday begin training taxpayers on how to use its iTax platform to fill individual income tax returns, as well as pay value added tax (VAT).

The platform has undergone a number of upgrades to enhance compliance and revenue collection, including reducing the time it takes to file VAT returns to 67 minutes, and enabling taxpayers to file for refunds online.

New registrations

In a notice issued last week, KRA also encouraged all employers to issue P9 forms to their employees to facilitate filing of their income tax individual (IT1) returns.

The latest figures from KRA indicate that so far, just below 1.1 million taxpayers are on the iTax platform. New registrations, however, are increasing at an average rate of 60,000 per month.

“We wish to invite all Nairobi taxpayers registered for various tax obligations to attend the iTax trainings to be conducted every Thursday at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre,” said KRA.

The iTax training and awareness forums will have live demonstrations on e-registration and e-filing, as well as instructions on iPage updates, and making PAYE (form P10) and ITI returns.

“The main objective of the system is to enable the taxman catch those who do not normally file returns. It will also bring into the net those employers who deduct taxes from their workers and do not remit this money to the agency,” said Kariithi Murimi, a risk consultant.

He noted that county governments have been named among the most notorious in non-remittance of dues to KRA.

iTax is a system developed by KRA to replace the current online system It allows one to update tax registration details, file returns, register all payments and make status enquiries, while offering real-time monitoring of accounts.

All this is integrated through an iPage, which is the profile page on iTax that shows a taxpayer’s registration details.

“iTax makes compliance with tax requirements easier and provides KRA with additional capacity to detect non-filing or misfiling, which are practices associated with tax evasion,” said KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini, speaking at the launch of the 2015 campaign to encourage income tax filing.

Tax evasion

To file returns on iTax, you need to log into the system and go to the returns tab to download the necessary forms. The forms are filled offline. You will then generate a zipped file to upload them.

“iTax has the advantage of allowing access to the tax ledger, including access by employees on PAYE deductions,” noted KRA in an information bulletin posted on its website.

“There is also a real-time update of a taxpayer’s ledger upon filing of returns and making payments.”

iTax has numerous payment channels, with a growing number of banks being recruited to make the payment of domestic taxes more convenient.

“The goal of the authority is to simplify the process to ensure Kenyans are tax compliant,” said Mr Njiraini.

“iTax will enable KRA to better understand taxpayer behaviour, which is critical in designing and implementing effective compliance strategies that contribute to the sustainability of our taxation system.”

Related Topics

iTax KRA