Suba South MP Caroli Omondi will pay the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Sh44.7 million after his application challenging the demand was dismissed by the tax appeals tribunal.
The KRA said the legislator acquired a property worth Sh150 million in July 2018 through a company known as Bukeri Holdings Ltd, but the firm filed nil returns in 2018 and 2019.
The MP challenged the demand, arguing that KRA was claiming the money from him instead of the company yet it had its PIN.
His application was dismissed as the tribunal said he was given a chance to provide documents supporting the objection but did not do so.
“The tribunal, therefore, finds that the appellant is guilty of not filing his notice of objection within the specified time and that the respondent was right to invalidate the appellant’s objection for being time-barred,” said the tribunal chaired by Robert Mutuma.
Evidence presented before the tribunal was that it came across a transaction from capital gains tax data indicating that Bukeri Holdings Ltd had acquired the property.
A search by the KRA established that Mr Omondi was the majority shareholder in the company, owning 99 percent of the equity.
The taxman then assumed that the company was either not trading or did not have an income and concluded that the property acquisition could only be funded by a loan facility or director’s capital injection.
