Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) has revved up strategies in readiness for high traffic ahead of the 2021 annual income tax return where it expects over five million taxpayers to file by June 30, 2022, deadline.

In a carrot-and-stick approach, the taxman has extended working hours at the physical and online filling points ahead of the deadline with Huduma Centres operating from 8 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday. A notice to taxpayers also shows the taxman has extended its working hours at service centres to weekends and 6:30 pm on weekdays starting June 2 to June 30 to help taxpayers beat the deadline.

The centres, which normally operate between 8am and 5pm, are now working from 7 am to 6:30 pm to serve workers who were locked out by the initial eight-hour shift.

However, KRA is also making taxpayers know of the consequences of not taking advantage of the facilities. The penalty for late filing and late payment of income tax for individuals is 5 per cent of the tax due or Sh2,000, whichever is higher.

Daily filings

Latest data from KRA shows that more than 2.87 million taxpayers had filed returns by June 7 against a target of 7.1 million. This is about 41 per cent of those targeted by the taxman. This is less compared with 3.07 million people who filed within a similar period time last year with KRA saying it has been processing more than 200,000 filings daily.

The taxman is eyeing returns from more than 5.5 million taxpayers who filed their tax returns for the year 2020. This comes in the backdrop of increased revenue collections with KRA revealing that Sh1.46 trillion was collected between July 2021 and April 2022, which is higher than the Sh1.42 trillion target.