Poor Kenyans, KRA warns them to own up or penalties will hit them where it hurts most.
“Please make payment within 15 days, failure to which the amounts will attract collection enforcement measures,” the taxman warned in letters sent out in the past two weeks.
The notices came even as some taxpayers complained that they were being targeted despite having filed their returns on time and did not have any outstanding dues, raising the prospect of disputes with the taxman.
KRA, however, said the default notices are system-generated for periods and in instances where a taxpayer has not filed a tax return by the due date as defined in law.
The taxman recently rolled out a system that tracks taxpayers’ outstanding debt (principal, penalties and interest amounts) which are then assigned to officers for follow-up and recover.
“Roll-out of this module led to the generation of default notices for all outstanding debt in taxpayers’ ledgers for periods 2015 to date,” KRA said, adding that recipients of the notices should seek assistance from its contact centres for any questions or clarifications.
The taxman is facing a mountainous task of raising enough revenue to finance the government’s Sh 2.97 trillion budget and identified defaulters as a key plank in the race to meeting the targets.
It has stepped up the hunt for workers and businessmen who fail to file tax returns or pay due taxes, imposing a Sh 20,000 fine on late filing.
Between July and September this year KRA only managed to grow tax revenues by 3.7 percent over the same period last year, having collected Sh 329 billion in the first quarter of this financial year compared to Sh 317.4 billion last year.
Filing of tax returns has emerged as one of the taxman’s favoured avenues to net tax cheats and grow the income tax base as the agency struggles to meet collection targets.
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has served notices to thousands of tax defaulters