Data from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) shows that about 41% of Kenyans targeted by the taxman have filed their returns ahead of the June 30 deadline.
By June 7, more than 2.87 million taxpayers had filed their returns, against a targeted 7.1 million taxpayers.
During last year’s same period, 3.07million people had filed their returns. The current number is almost 200,000 less.
KRA says it has been processing more than 200,000 filings daily.
The taxman estimates an increase in daily filings as the deadline nears.
Extended working hours
It has also extended working hours at the physical and online filling points to encourage growth in the figure ahead of the deadline.
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Having started on June 2, running through to June 30, the working hours at Service centres have been extended to 6:30 pm on weekdays, and staff members are reporting on weekends too.
This will try to help taxpayers beat the last-minute deadline.
This means centres are now working from 7 am to 6:30 pm to serve workers who are much engaged in their weekday job duties.
On Saturdays, the centres will open from 9 am to 1 pm in the race to have more workers and business owners file their income tax returns.
As of now, the contact centres are operating from 6 am to 12 pm Monday to Friday, then between 9 am and 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
“Huduma Centres will however operate from 8 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday and remain closed on Saturdays,” said KRA in a notice to taxpayers.
Over-Performance in tax revenue collected
Between July 2021 and April 2022, KRA collected nearly Sh1.46 trillion. This figure is slightly higher than the Sh1.42 trillion target on a prorated target.
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In the 10 months, the tax receipts were Sh265.64 billion. This figure represents 22.31% higher than the Sh1.19 trillion the KRA collected in a similar period in the prior year.
The full re-opening of the economy after coronavirus infections fell has highly contributed to the over-performance in tax receipts this fiscal year compared to last year’s.
