Whistleblowers reported suspected tax evasion of Ksh2.1 billion using an online reporting platform.
This is yet another great achievement the taxman has made since launching the web-based anonymous iWhistle reporting system in November 2020 to enable whistleblowers to report cases of tax evasions such as fraud, bribery, conflict of interest, concealment of cargo and abuse of office.
The irregularities were realized in six months through May.
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) confirmed it had identified some 359 individuals and companies for potential tax evasion from voluntary reports presented by whistleblowers who concealed their identities for security reasons.
KRA Commissioner for Intelligence and Strategic Operations Terra Saidimu confirmed Times Tower-based detectives had already begun verifying transactions carried out by the suspected evaders over the years.
“Once we receive the information, we take it through our process of validation. By the end of May, we had 359 whistles with about 2.1 billion in our own assessment,” Saidimu noted.
The Whistleblowers are now set to get their reward from the tax authority for their discovery.
According to the KRA Act, the reward for people who provide information that leads to recovery of taxes stands at Ksh2 million or five percent of the recovered taxes, whichever is lower.
Individuals who provide information leading to the discovery of un-assessed taxes will be rewarded Ksh500,000 up from Ksh100,000 to enhance tax compliance and revenue collection.
On the iWhistle platform, a whistleblower is assigned a unique code to identify him/her once they report a tax crime on the website, masking their real identity.
However, the KRA staff and Public Service officers enforcing tax compliance are not eligible for a reward from the information by the whistleblowers.
