KRA targets athletes, foreign bank accounts

By Judith Akolo

Sportsmen and women, artists and individuals holding bank accounts in foreign banks have until December this year to declare such cash and start paying tax on earnings accrued abroad.

This is part of measures being employed by the Kenya Revenue Authority to widen the tax bracket and increase revenue collections.

Currently, less than two million Kenyans of the eligible 10 million taxpayers pay their taxes.

Those in sports have previously termed this double taxation but KRA maintains an individual cannot be a tax resident of two countries.

KRA is calling on state agencies charged with the responsibility of preventing illicit money from being smuggled into Kenya do so to ensure only legal investments contribute to the national economy.

KRA hopes to increase tax collection while minimizing the cost of doing so.

Kenya’s annual revenue growth has been exponential, steadily increasing from a meager 340 billion shillings 10 years ago to the current 1.4 trillion shillings.

In the next financial year, KRA has been given a revenue collection target of 1.7 trillion shillings, with several quarters expressing doubts if this will be achieved.

However, KRA says it can surpass this if all the eligible 10 million taxpayers paid their taxes.