KRA suspends tax refunds, exemptions, waivers to adopt Bottom-up Transformation Agenda

 

Kenya Revenue Authority office.

The Kenya Revenue Authority has declared that beginning on Tuesday, February 28th, it will no longer be making any tax relief payments.

Based on a notice that came out that same afternoon, the taxman said that the change was made so that the body could improve the way tax refunds, exemptions, waivers, and abandonments are handled. The announcement was made on the exact same day as the transition.

The KRA said that the change was part of the government's plan to get more tax money and stop the mysterious loss of tax money, and that this step was now being taken.

In addition, the authority said that the restriction was implemented in light of worries raised by taxpayers over the need to reorganise the laws and processes that regulate tax exemptions.

"All tax relief payments have been halted upon further notice by the Kenya Revenue Authority, which collaborated on this decision with the National Treasury and Economic Planning."

"The upgrade is part of the administration's goal to reduce resource waste and allow the KRA to collect more revenue for the nation's progress," according to a portion of the announcement.

In addition, the notification said that the restriction of tax reliefs as well as the continuous examination of these reliefs were done with the intention of maximising the positive influence that tax spending has on the expansion of the economy.

"This is a component of the aggressive revenue mobilisation strategy that is targeted at improving revenue collection and allocating resources to fund key economic distributable reserves."

"That will be accomplished by lowering tax expenditure and harmonising it with worldwide best practises for improved internal revenue," the authority noted. "This will result in more internal income."

In addition, KRA said that over the course of the last five years, it has provided tax reliefs and incentives totaling up to Ksh610 billion, with an annual average of Ksh122 billion.

In particular, it was said that the procedures would be changed so that there would be equal processing of tax reliefs and acceptable granting of tax breaks if the modifications were made.

"The Bottom-up Transformation Agenda (BETA) will be given a boost as a result of this step."

According to the authority, "KRA will continue to collaborate directly with tax-paying citizens to fix any challenges that have arisen for the purpose of making tax compliance easier."