The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has indefinitely frozen bank accounts of a Chinese company based in Mombasa over tax evasion.
Housemart Co Limited is accused of using seven other companies to evade tax amounting to Ksh 2.2 billion.
KRA issued the order on October 1.
The company, whose headquarters are in Mombasa, imports various items including construction materials and household commodities.
Housemart used the subsidiaries to divert funds in order to reduce the tax obligations.
The firms are Colila Limited, Akubi Limited, Nkemm Limited, Obeset Kenya Limited, Sunda Company Limited and Wise Databank Limited.
According to KRA, the companies were registered by Housemart Co Limited and they received cash from sales proceeds on behalf of Housemart.
Documents lodged in court indicate that the tax authority traced the money trail and assessed the deposits in these companies’ accounts, which revealed that the firm had not paid Ksh 2,243,781,488 tax.
Deposits to the accounts of the subsidiaries were made by the employees of Housemart, or by companies that provide cash in transit services contracted by the firm.
The tax evaded covers income tax and valued added tax (VAT) for the years 2015 to 2017.
