Fintax International

03/07/2024

Hey all followers. Alot has happened on the tax frontiers. It is important for us to engage on matters taxation since we now appreciate that tax knowledge is important. We have just concluded the rigorous income tax filing season which ended on 30th June 2024.

By the way, why do we have 30th June as the deadline of filing income tax for majority of the taxpayers especially individuals?

The income tax Act requires a taxpayer to have filed their income tax returns by the end of the sixth month following the end of the financial year.

Since all individuals, partnerships have their year end in December, it thus follows that the due date for filing income tax returns is June the following year.

So this year, we were filing the income tax returns for the year 2023.

10/05/2023

25/12/2021

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU.

20/07/2021

Dear employee, what do you do with your Form P9 after filing your income Tax returns?

Many employed taxpayers have been forced to pay for liabilities that we're to be accounted for by their employers due to the absence of these vital documents.

With the itax system in place, you must verify your tax status by confirming the entries in your ledger. This ensures that you are well informed of the tax payment status promptly.

The form P9 should also be maintained either in print or soft to resolve any tax-related matter in future.

14/06/2021

A person who has a withholding tax certificate for 2020 goes to a Cyber Cafe and files a return by claiming a credit claiming that the government owes him a refund.

Several months after the return is filed you receive a call from KRA. It all depends on the officer that calls you. One may be kind enough to guide you on amending your returns.

Yet another one will demand to see the bank statements since you are already doing business and yet you haven't declared.

Fintax International advises you to get the correct advise.

11/06/2021

There has always been a popular statement emerging from the corridors of Justice. "The law is not for the indolent, it is for the vigilant".

Many taxpayers have on several occasions found themselves in trouble with the taxman because they never took notice when the tax laws changed.

In the financial year 2020, there were changes occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and the normal changes done through the 2020 Finance Act.

Just how well do you know these changes and how do they affect you taxwise?

23/08/2019

Of late, there have been several clients who have come to me having their Companies registered as Taxpayers with the wrong Tax Obligations.

The basic tax obligation every taxpayer is that of Income Tax. For an individual, the basic obligation is Income Tax Resident or Income Tax Non Resident.

For partnerships, the basic obligation is Income Tax Partnership.

The rest of the organizations and Companies have their basic obligations as Income Tax Company.

The rest of the obligations are agency based. Agency activities include collecting VAT and Income Tax from employees through the PAYE Obligations.

It is important that before you apply for PIN, relevant professional advise should be sought.

It is best to register on the basis of knowledge rather than operate in ignorance and suffer the consequences.

29/12/2018

Good afternoon, friends.

The year 2018 is almost coming to a close. Which is the most exciting tax news you heard this year?

The Finance Act with the 8% VAT, presumptive tax, or the reduction of penalties. Well, these taxes affect you directly or indirectly.

If a tax affects you directly, it means that you are required to account and make payments to KRA. If employed, your employer does it on your behalf every month. However, you still have to make the final accounting and pay the balance of tax if any. This happens if your employer under deduct a tax from your salary. If you have another source of income, you have to declare that income and make payment of the tax arrears.

Well, the budget seems to be right on the government. The KRA has become even more aggressive in the collection of the taxes. Our advice is that we keep our house in order.

Remember this that December 31st marks the end of the year for most of us and our companies. The Income Tax returns and balance of tax payments for the current year will be due up to 30th June and 30th April 2019 respectively.

We plan to move a notch higher in the provision of tax education in the coming year. Our events calendar will be out in due course. We will request that you have a date with us even as we make our interaction with you valuable in terms of knowledge needed.

We take this opportunity to wish you a happy new year 2019.

26/11/2018

Good morning friends.

Many things have happened in the tax world since I last posted on this page.

We are now paying 8% VAT, 5% of the basic salary as the housing fund and the animal in the room has now become the VAT Auto Assessment.

Yet another development has been the recent court rulings on the burden of proof. The statutes have always stated that in civil proceedings, the burden of proof falls on the taxpayer. However, it has been ruled that it will now fall on the one who alleges that tax has not been paid.

Is it a relief to the taxpayer who has always dreaded a visit from the taxman? In my opinion, the relief may be short lived. This is especially if the taxman appeals against that judgement.

On the other hand, in some areas, the chicken has come to roost for the landlords.

Many residential building owners who have not been filling their monthly Income Tax Rent Income returns are slowly being nabbed. As a result, a big chunk of their income will now be used to meet their tax liabilities.

Finally, good people, always ensure that your tax records are up to date. For those in business, record keeping is a must. That is if you don't want to fall where many have fallen in the past.

Have a thoughtful week.

13/08/2018

In every athletics competition, there are different categories of races. We have the short races, field events and long distance races that are crowned by the marathon.

The tax world similarly has different matters ranging from those who view the Form P9 as their main problem to those who will even make the ones who think are more knowledgeable on tax matters scratch their heads.

The Income Tax Bill 2018 has finally been published. We have seen different entities hold different seminars with an aim of bringing knowledge to the public on how this bill will affect their lives once it is enacted into Law.

As usual, the wealthy are represented by their auditors and persons who can lobby for unfavorable sections to be expunged from the Bill.

What about those who cannot voice their concern? We have people who will realize that things are not the same only when it is too late.

In our own small ways, we will endeavor to provide information in bits on various changes that are proposed in this Bill and how they will affect your life.

We take this opportunity to wish you a nice week ahead.

15/03/2018

THE POWER OF THIRD PARTY INFORMATION:

The Kenya Revenue Authority has of the recent past suspended the PIN accounts of various taxpayers. The move was led by the fact that these taxpayers were either not filling the VAT returns, were filling NIL returns while there is evidence that they were in active business.

Having attended to some of the affected taxpayers, we discovered that they traded with appointed VAT Withholding agents who made declarations of having received supplies from them. Withholding VAT is applied to taxable supplies irrespective whether the supplier is registered or not for VAT. Nonregistered taxpayers are encouraged to register for VAT in case they are not within the threshold stated in Section 34 of the VAT Act 2013.

Unfortunately some taxpayers found themselves having attained the threshold of compulsory registration and had not complied with the law. Theirs is just a very unfortunate case.

In these days, with lots of information being supplied to KRA, it is important for taxpayers to take tax matters seriously. It is of no benefit to file wrong information where at the click of a button, the government can obtain any tax related information at any time.

Most of the taxpayers whom their PIN accounts are still active do not have to celebrate yet. Such persons may end up having the rough edge of the sword, when the taxman comes knocking.

The taxman knows the psychology of the taxpayer. They are swift in claiming expenses but slow on declaring revenue. But since your expense is my revenue, once you claim your expense, my revenue is thus known and viceversa