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Kenya eyes 3 bln USD from tax amnesty

Xinhua, March 28, 2017 Adjust font size:

Kenya plans to collect an additional 3 billion U.S. dollars in tax revenues for the 2017/2018 financial year from its tax amnesty law, officials said on Tuesday.

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Deputy Commissioner in Charge of Policy Unit James Ojee told a media briefing in Nairobi that the tax amnesty covers Kenyan residents with Foreign Sourced Income as well as withholding tax on rental income.

"We are hoping to increase our tax collection to 17 billion dollars for the 2017/2018 financial year, up from the current 14 billion dollars from our tax amnesty law," Ojee said during a media tax sensitization forum.

In 2016, Kenya passed a tax law that gave amnesty to all Kenya residents with foreign income.

To take advantage of the amnesty, Kenyans have up to Dec. 31, 2017, to declare their foreign sourced income and wealth and will be required to begin paying taxes from January 2018.

Ojee said that Kenyans who have already paid taxes in foreign jurisdictions will receive a tax credit to prevent them from paying tax twice for the same income.

The taxman said that Kenya is currently cooperating with many nations in the enforcement of tax laws.

"We have signed a number of agreements with friendly nations to ensure that Kenyans can't evade paying their rightful share of taxes by concealing their property abroad," the deputy commissioner added.

The tax amnesty was enacted in order to expand the East African nation's tax base.

According to KRA, approximately only two million Kenyans pay income taxes out of an active labor force of about 15 million people. Endit