The Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) has stepped up its game in the hunt for tax cheats.
KRA has indicated plans to track individual mobile money transactions in a bid to catch evaders.
Telco giant, Safaricom, said that it will open up its M-Pesa accounts for scrutiny should it be warranted by a law.
The taxman said it would also monitor other popular money transfer channels such as, PesaLink and PayPal.
KRA has also proposed that foreign companies with digital operations in Kenya should pay tax locally. These include companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, Uber etc.
KRA officials said most businesses have evolved to operate primary online, hence they have set their sights in that direction.
Joseline Ogai, KRA’s deputy commissioner for Research, Knowledge Management and Corporate Planning, said, “The data matching will help to monitor the transaction and reconcile the tax returns with the financial flows relating to an individual or company.”
Should the Data Protection Bill successfully make its way through, this new mode of fiscal monitoring may become a possibility.
Related article: Online businesses on alert as Kenya taxman(KRA) warns against tax evasion
The news has been received with mixed reactions from Kenyans. Most expressing that MPesa is merely a channel to transfer money between different sources and destinations, and does not necessarily reflect a person’s income.
Others have raised concerns over the move, saying it would lead to over-taxation since M-Pesa transactions are already taxed.
In 2016, KRA had attempted to monitor Mpesa transactions, only to be denied access by Safaricom, citing they would be breaching their clients privacy.
