Businessman arraigned for tax evasion

The owner of the Aberdare Solutions Limited Company, David Ngari Nderitu, has been charged in a Nairobi court with evading tax amounting to over Sh 15 million.

Nderitu appeared before Milimani Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Nderitu is accused of omitting Sh 30,424,249 from his Value Added Tax returns for the January to December 2015, an amount which affected his VAT liability by Sh 4.8 million that ought to have been declared and paid to Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) via the VAT Act.

Nderitu, who is the sole proprietor of the firm,  is also charged with omitting another Sh 74,576,378 from his VAT returns from 2016, thus affecting his VAT liability by Sh 11.9 million.

In another count, he allegedly omitted Sh 28,828,941 from his VAT for the year 2019 which affected his VAT liability by Sh 4,612,630.

The proprietor is accused of claiming VAT refunds using fictitious invoices from Bosco Enterprises Sh 14, 032,035 knowing the claim to fraudulent and without merit.

He is also alleged to have unlawfully claimed VAT refund using fictitious invoices from Davron Petroleum Limited.

According to KRA, Nderitu is a beneficiary of the “missing trader” tax evasion scheme, a tax fraud syndicate where a taxpayer uses several registered business names for fictitious invoicing where there is no actual supply of goods and   

He was released on a cash bail of Sh 100,000. The case will be mentioned on December 10, 2019.