Aggressive tax collection and recovery measures by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has raised revenue collection by a fifth in the year to June 2022, bringing to the highest ever annual growth margin recorded by the agency.
According to the tax agency, it grew revenue by 21.7% or Sh148.9 billion to hit Sh2.03 trillion, eclipsing the previous high of 21% seen in the 2006/2007 fiscal year.
The rise in revenue was backed by a recovery of the economy in 2021, which expanded by 7.5% compared to the Covid-19 pandemic-led contraction of 0.3% in 2020.
The KRA has also recently enhanced collection efforts by among other things deploying more than 500 intelligence officers to gather information on tax evaders and utilizing data to track non-payment of taxes on income by businesses.
“The extensive use of data and intelligence to unearth unpaid taxes have led to improved voluntary compliance and tax base expansion which is aimed at onboarding taxpayers previously not paying their fair share of taxes,” said the KRA.
Car registration details have been used to smoke out individuals who are driving high-end vehicles but have little to show in terms of taxes remitted, while the power meter registrations have helped the taxman to identify tax-dodging landlords, some of whom have been slapped with huge tax demands.
The agency has also rolled out a voluntary tax disclosure programme which commenced in January 2021, and which realized Sh8.55 billion in taxes from 17,038 applications in the 2021/2022 fiscal year.
This boosted corporate, payroll and Value Added Tax performance.