The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will this week go after rich Kenyan Individuals who owe almost Sh250 billion in taxes. The taxman says their assets will be seized and auctioned and their personal identification numbers (PINs) disabled.
They will also not be permitted to continue doing business and the taxman will block their cargo at the Port of Mombasa, together with individual firms KRA had given them up to last Saturday to clear the dues or make payment plans or risk the raft of enforcement actions.
“All taxpayers with outstanding tax liabilities and have not paid or entered payment plans to do so by 20th of June 2020, failure to which appropriate enforcement measures will be instituted against the outstanding debt,” said KRA in a notice.
“Affected taxpayers are advised to get in touch with Tax Service Office in order to settle their tax debts or propose payment plans.”
Should the taxman make good its threat, affected individuals and businesses will not be able to perform transactions that require proof of active registration as a taxpayer, that is registration of land titles, transfer and licensing of motor vehicles, and registration of business names and companies e.t.c.
The taxman’s detectives were put to tas to identify taxcheats after KRA failed to reach its target on tax consucutively. The detectives identified wealthy individuals and companies who owe it an estimated Sh250 billion leading to a manhunt that promises to be the biggest crackdown on high net-worth persons.
In January the taxman missed its half-year tax collection target by Sh88.3 billion, netting Sh857.8 billion over the period.
KRA has been using all available databases to pursue suspected tax cheats, including bank statements, import records, motor vehicle registration details, Kenya Power records, water bills and data from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCCA).
The National Assembly’s Public Investment Committee (PIC) has put KRA on the spot and criticised the entity for what it terms as systematic failure that led to the failure of collecting the billions.
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