KRA to keep tax filing numbers private for the first time – Business Daily
A Kenya Revenue Authority staff assists a taxpayer file her tax returns at the iTax Support Centre in Nairobi Railways on June 30, 2020. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will not disclose the number of taxpayers who filed returns by June 30 deadline, making it the first time the taxman will not be making public the data since it launched the annual exercise.
The taxman mounted aggressive campaigns asking taxpayers to file returns on time to avoid the penalties that come with non-compliance.
Filing returns enables a person to establish whether there are taxes due and payable or any refund due at the end of a year of income.
“Kindly note that KRA will not release this information (on the number of taxpayers who filed their 2021 tax returns as at 30th June deadline),” KRA’s assistant manager, media relations Hannah Gakuo told the Business Daily on Wednesday.
KRA reported that more than 5.5 million taxpayers filed their tax returns by midnight of the June 30 deadline last year.
Some 4.4 million filed returns in 2020. Taxpayers file returns for the previous year, with the filing period running from January 1 to June 30.
The number of taxpayers using iTax has been growing over the past few years, rising from 3.6million in 2019 to 4.4million in 2020 and 2021’s 5.5million.
But KRA still reports that some 600,000 of the 6.1 million taxpayers registered on iTax failed to file, even as it added the number of last-minute fillers was down this year.
“The growth in the numbers show positive progress in tax compliance, a move that is anticipated to further drive the country towards economic growth. As has been the case in the previous years, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Tax Service Offices did not experience long queues during the last days of filing,” the agency said in a statement last year.
Aggressive tax collection and recovery measures by the Kenya Revenue Authority raised revenue collection by a fifth in the year to June 2022, the highest ever annual growth margin recorded by the agency.
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