Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich on Monday announced that unregistered tax agents will face arrest over illegal dealings in new laws set up by the ministry.
The agents, a majority of who also operate cyber cafés, will face two years in jail if convicted of assisting in tax evasion.
CS Rotich cited that there is an increasing number of unlicensed agents helping Kenyans — especially, in the filing of tax returns — to escape their tax obligations.
"Any person, who operates as a tax agent without being registered, fraudulently procures or attempts to procure registration as a tax agent…commits an offence and shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding Sh200,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both," the new laws state in part.
[caption caption="Treasury CS Henry Rotich speaks during a past meeting at Parliament"]
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The Tax Procedures (Tax Agents) Regulations 2018 that will be gazetted by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will require all tax agents to either be members of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) or practising advocates of the High Court of Kenya.
Only former tax administrators with at least 10 years in experience will be allowed to become tax agents without the aforementioned qualifications.
The tax agents will further be required to make a mandatory application for registration with KRA and pay a fee of Ksh20,000 before they are allowed to operate.
After the registration, registered agents will be allowed to prepare and submit returns for their clients and even act on their clients' behalf in tax correspondence with KRA.
The CS explained that the new laws would help check the leaks within the system that have continued to prevent the government from collecting revenue according to the targets set.
In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, KRA reported 3.2 million Kenyans had filed their 2017 income tax returns, a 60 percent increase from the two million in the previous year.
[caption caption="KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini giving an address during a past event"]
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