Tax revenues from the country’s 111 on-boarded betting and gambling companies rose by 26.2 per cent during the 2023/2024 financial year, growing to Sh24.2 billion from Sh19.2 billion the previous year.
The growth follows integration of the companies onto Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) tax system, which provides the taxman with real time access to their data. KRA collects taxes on revenue generated (15 per cent), excise duty on amounts staked (20 per cent), a withholding tax on winnings (20 per cent), and a 15 per cent turnover tax charged on gross earnings.
The taxman attributed the growth to its efforts to integrate company revenue platforms into its tax system through their tax base expansion programme. In 2018, the authority rolled out an elaborate tax base expansion programme to identify Kenyans involved in gainful business who ought to be paying taxes but they are not aimed at yielding more revenue.
“The growth in revenue from betting taxes highlights KRA’s commitment to leveraging technology and data analytics to enhance tax collection processes. This is part of the Authority’s broader strategy to expand the tax base and improve overall compliance,” the taxman’s statement said.
Some of the initiatives under the programme also include recruitment of landlords under the monthly rental income (MRI) obligation and block management system (BMS) to map out potential taxpayers through the programme, KRA also recruited 1.24 million additional active taxpayers in the period under review.
