Many Kenyans support efforts aimed at making citizens tax compliant, but the onus is on KRA to ensure that its records are in tune with those of its clients.
Even as the taxman’s deadline for tax arrears to be paid up looms, scores of recipients of the demand notices are crying foul.
According to some taxpayers, the Kenya Revenue Authority has failed to accurately transfer taxpayers’ information from old manual or semi-automated platforms to the current iTax system.
While the tax agency is obligated to ensure it collects all dues owed to it, it is imperative that it also addresses the concerns raised by various taxpayers.
It would be totally unfair to lump penalties on taxpayers if it turns out that they are not to blame.
Though KRA insists that it is only tidying up taxpayers’ ledgers in its system, tax advisory firms insist that tax demand letters to their clients have been piling up for the past three weeks.
They argue that the taxman’s move to use the VAT auto assessment to detect inconsistencies between purchase and sale invoices declared in the VAT returns has not been properly configured hence the discrepancies.
We urge KRA to ensure that its tax collection efforts do not cause panic and outcry among taxpayers.
In order for the taxman to increase its revenue collection targets and rope in more people by widening the tax net, it should make sure that the environment it operates in is cordial.
It would be defeating its own goals were it to be viewed as a monstrosity by the Kenyan taxpayers.
Many Kenyans support efforts aimed at making citizens tax compliant, but the onus is on KRA to ensure that its records are in tune with those of its clients.
KRA is being accused by some firms of demanding arrears that are older than 20 years yet the Tax Procedures Act 205 obligates a taxpayer to maintain tax-related documents for up to five years from the end of the reporting period.
Some of the firms argue that they had filed their corporate income VAT and withholding tax arrears yet they were still receiving demand notices. We call on the taxman to address issues of omission and errors on migration of data .
And as the tax advisory firms argue, it would not be surprising if the disparity between KRA records and those of the taxpayers were caused during the migration from the manual system to the new one.
Addressing all these concerns would go a long way in instilling confidence in the agency’s tax records among the taxpayers.
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