More pain to content creators and smartphone users as the government sets to increase tax to 15%

 

If the Finance Bill is put forward at the National Assembly and passed, the National Treasury hopes to remove 3% of Kenyans' basic salaries for the National Housing Development Fund, complemented by another 3% from the employer.

Additionally, as part of the government's attempts to broaden the tax base, Treasury is recommending that your PAYE be increased from the present rate of 30% to 35% for people obtaining more than Ksh. 500,000.

The low-income housing programme allows employees who meet the criteria for affordable housing to use the money they contribute to purchase a home.

The contributions that are made by people who are not qualified for affordable housing will be moved to a retirement benefit or pension plan.

Furthermore, according to the suggested Finance Bill, bookmakers must send excise taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) within 24 hours.

In contrast to imported mobile phones, which will now be subject to a 10% excise charge, wigs, human hair, fake beards, eyebrows, and eyelashes will now be subject to a 5% excise duty.

The law aims to give the taxman more power by requiring everyone involved in disputes with KRA at the Tax Appeals Tribunal to deposit 20% of the amount in dispute or any security equivalent to that amount with KRA while the matter is being addressed.

Additionally, all monetized content from digital content creators will be subject to a 15% withholding tax.

Still, in the digital realm, the new digital tax will apply to the transaction of any digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, token codes, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The Finance Bill suggests amending Section 5 of the Income Tax Act to guarantee that monetary allowances, sometimes known as per diems, given to employees are properly taxed.

With the new proposal, the government will have an obligation to work with employers to create a working system that ensures that workers pay their fair share of wages.