Experts hail tax amnesty on offshore income

Tax experts have welcomed the government’s move to give amnesty to Kenyans with offshore investments.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich during his budget presentation directed the Kenya Revenue Authority to give an amnesty window for Kenyans generating income from investments abroad to boost tax compliance.

PwC tax partner Rajesh Shah said the move will eliminate the risk of double taxation and spur such individuals to willingly pay income tax.

“If it’s done well I think it will create a good base for people to bring back assets into the country and stimulate economic activity,” Mr Shah said.

KRA has suffered from poor tax compliance with only 2.2 million registered taxpayers.

Treasury has also proposed amendments to the Tax Procedures Act, 2015 to grant KRA more powers to gather information in on taxpayers.

This will enable the taxman to collect information in advance, from “identified persons” for purposes of repopulating the information in the iTax System.

“We await further guidelines to be provided on the implementation of this proposal,” he said.

By Sophia Ali