Individuals and firms who do not pay taxes will have their Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) deregistered by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
In a statement to newsrooms, KRA Commissioner for Domestic Taxes Department Elizabeth Meyo said that authority has started the process of deregistering the PINs following a lapse of a window given to tax cheats to pay up.
Meyo said that that they had given the suspected tax cheats up to June 20 to settle their dues or craft a payment plan.
“KRA is, therefore, advising all taxpayers with outstanding tax liabilities and have not paid or entered payment plans to do so by 20th of June 2020, failure to which appropriate enforcement measures will be instituted against the outstanding debt.
“The affected taxpayers are advised to get in touch with Tax Service Office in order to settle their tax debts or propose payment plans,” read the statement.
KRA says that the tax cheats have denied the State Ksh250 billion.
Meyo said that they have cancelled KRA PINS for these individuals and business entities and also disposed their assets to recover unpaid monies in taxes as prescribed by the law.
The Tax Procedures Act of 2015 has given KRA powers to auction assets owned by tax cheats and prosecute them too. KRA has also been mandated to collect duty from financial institutions or suppliers working directly with tax cheats.
With the PINs for these entities cancelled, they can no longer conduct business in Kenya. A KRA PIN is a mandatory document for anyone seeking to conduct business in Kenya or employ people.
Additionally, those whose PINs will be cancelled cannot register, transfer or license any motor vehicle or register a business under their name.
KRA insisted that it will do anything possible to hit its target of Ksh1.6trillion in revenue collection in the 2020/2021 financial year.
Besides failing to pay taxes, declaring false returns also warrants deregistration of you KRA PIN.