KRA nets 1,000 landlords in the rent amnesty targeting Sh1bn

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has put an extra 1,000 landlords into the tax net following the declaration of an amnesty last year.

The taxman has received Sh130 million from the recruited landlords so far, KRA commissioner-general John Njiraini said on Tuesday.

The target is 100,000 landlords paying taxes by the end of the next fiscal year with the intention to raise at least Sh1 billion in real estate-related taxes.

“There are at least 1,000 landlords who have taken up the amnesty that we gave to declare and pay up tax. We are expecting many more will come forward especially as we approach the deadline in June,” said Mr Njiraini.

As of now, there are a total of 13,000 landlords who are paying tax, including the 1,000 who have been recruited in recent months.

Intractable obstacle

In 2013, the KRA had planned for a GPS-enabled mapping and registration of all properties in urban areas but this has proved problematic as it requires multiple co-ordination with other organs of the government, especially the Ministry of Land, which keeps the land records.

But the struggle by the KRA to persuade landlords to pay up started even earlier. Its most intractable obstacle has been the nature of their business where it is physically difficult to identify the owners of the buildings.

Initially, the KRA had asked taxpayers to give details of their landlords, but this proved unworkable since the tenants never got anywhere close to knowing the real contacts of the house owners.

While many would chase away inquisitive tenants, in other cases some of the properties are managed by agents who would never disclose who the landlords are.

Many landlords had also threatened that they would increase rental prices should the taxman succeed in his bid to extract tax from them.