Needed: A school curriculum on tax education

October is Kenya’s Taxpayers’ Month. During this month the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) engages taxpayers in various ways, mainly to appreciate them for meeting their patriotic obligation of building their nation through payment of taxes. 

As is the case for other nations, Kenya’s tax system is the main survival and growth artery for the economy. Without a competent tax agency a nation cannot sustainably provide welfare to its people and, in essence, cannot grow its economy.

Without adequate taxes the nation can neither provide public goods such as roads, education and health care nor can it sustain the wage bill of the civil servants who provide essential services to citizens.

The tax system is, therefore, the main driver of economic growth for any nation, Kenya included. In other words our economy can only grow as fast as our public revenue grows.

For a nation to grow, its tax system must function effectively and efficiently, and so mobilise adequate public revenue year after year at the least possible cost both to itself and to its citizenry.

Adequacy of tax revenues is driven by, among other factors, tax compliance by a wide tax base. In order to achieve this tax awareness among the citizens is important.

Among the key things that citizens need to appreciate are the various types of taxes, basic calculations of tax, the relationship between tax and provision of basic public services like water, health, education and roads, their rights and responsibilities as taxpayers.

Payment of taxes ranks high among national priorities and is therefore of utmost national concern.

Creation of awareness about national taxes should be a collective national duty and not the preserve of the revenue authority. We must all pool efforts to enhance overall tax compliance by marketing to Kenyans the importance of paying taxes.

Tax collection is an individual as well as a collective national duty and other agencies other than the KRA have a duty to help grow our national revenue, for without adequate revenue they will also not be adequately funded.

The role of our education system generally and our educational institutions specifically in educating future taxpayers about tax issues need not be overemphasised. As things stand now our children have very little understanding of our public revenue system. 

Indeed very few of our students understand that they can actually make careers in taxation. Actually, many high school students may not even know what the word ‘customs’ means.

Sadly, we introduce our children to taxation when they land their first job, which makes it very difficult for them to quickly appreciate their patriotic duty as taxpayers.

As such, very few of them develop a conviction that they need to fully comply with tax laws once they enter the tax bracket.

Educating our children about tax laws and processes can demystify the tax system and create renewed interest in our youths about taxation as they prepare to enter the tax bracket.

The KRA has been playing its part by educating young taxpayers but this effort needs to be complemented.

There exists an opportunity to build a wide base of knowledgeable future taxpayers and in effect enhance tax compliance and therefore increase several-fold our revenue collection as a country.

That opportunity lies in mainstreaming taxation and public revenue in our education curriculum.

Perhaps taxation should be mandatorily offered at all levels of education in Kenya, from the very basic primary levels where children would be taught the meaning and need of taxation to the higher levels where more complex items of taxation can be taught.

Unless we educate our society from early ages on the need to pay taxes we are unlikely to grow a tax base wide enough in future.

Payment of taxes is a solemn patriotic duty. As we come to the end of the Taxpayers’ Month I invite all Kenyans, both individual and corporate, to re-assess their patriotism to this nation by asking ourselves whether indeed we are adequately contributing in building the nation we want.

I particularly invite the managers of our education system to assess whether this sector is playing its rightful national duty of educating our children about our tax laws, systems and processes.

The role of education is to create a human being who applies knowledge and skills to improve his wellbeing and that of his society.

My humble submission is that we need to mainstream taxation in our education system. By so doing we will transform our children into patriotic Kenyans who are aware and ready to contribute to the growth of this great nation.

Dr Mwirigi, a deputy commissioner at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), is also in charge of Academics and Students Affairs at KRA’s Kenya School of Revenue Administration (KESRA).