Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Chairman, Ndiritu Muriithi, has assured that KRA is working on how to ease pressure on pay slips and not raiding it.
Speaking during a television interview with NTV on March 11, Muriithi emphasized the need to expand the tax base to relieve the pressure on salaries.
“We are not going to raid pay slips any further. Moving forward, we should be looking at how to ease the pressure on pay slips. We will do that by expanding the tax base,” Muriithi said.
Muriithi stated that KRA has worked on ways of expanding the tax base by using technology to make it easier for everybody to pay, for instance, the Value Added Tax (VAT).
He added that the agency has reorganized internally to create a department to help in the registration process to improve the tax base.
Muriithi said that to increase the tax base, KRA will also adjust VAT thresholds and use technology to monitor businesses that should be paying VAT but are not currently.
He noted that KRA is working on strategies to bring more businesses into formal taxation by simplifying the registration process.
Additionally, Muriithi said that Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is an obligation and the responsibility of the individual, while the employer is the designated agent to collect.
"Pay As You Earn" is an obligation of the individual; the employer is the designated agent to collect. The responsibility lies on the individual," he noted.
He also revealed that KRA is working on making the electronic Tax Invoice Management System(eTIMS) simpler and more efficient.
“Our system should not be difficult to use, and we are improving it to make it more responsive," Muriithi added.
