KRA's pre-populated return system aims to eliminate tax cheats
KRA has unveiled VAT Pre-Populated Return System, another measure aimed at sealing loopholes in the country's tax collection systems.
The taxman has unveiled VAT Pre-Populated Return System being yet another measure to seal loopholes in the country's revenue collection systems.
According to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), individuals and businesses using iTax, TIMS, eTIMS and customs business systems will have an easier time filing returns via the VAT Pre-Populated Return System.
Related
Mbadi pushes EAC revenue chiefs to target the hard-to-tax informal sector
This new feature will have an individual or business' transactions captured and automatically uploaded on their portal.
Taxman says this strategy presents a shift from the earlier manual data analysis approach that was used in the preparation of VAT returns.
KRA noted that the new automated system fills in every transaction captured from every digital payment platform that is integrated with iTax, TIMS, eTIMS and customs business systems.
“The VAT pre-populated return filling system reflects KRA’s commitment to simplifying tax processes,” said the Commissioner for Domestic Taxes, Mrs Rispah Simiyu.
"We are empowering businesses with a more transparent, efficient, and user-friendly tax reporting system as we explore further possibilities of a fully web based VAT return and a taxpayer dashboard to provide real time view of all the sales and purchases for a given taxpayer.”
KRA, she explained, seeks to transform tax administration with the VAT pre-populated return filing system for subsequent months once per tax filing period is due on the 20th of every month.
This is a significant step towards simplification of the VAT return filing process while leveraging on technology to enhance VAT compliance and customer experience.
To enhance tax compliance every VAT registered business (taxpayer) is required to issue and transmit electronic tax invoices to KRA through TIMS/eTIMS for all sales as required by law.
Using the automatically generated QR code reader and an invoice checker accessed on itax.kra.go.ke, taxpayers can verify whether their purchase invoices have been generated from TIMS/eTIMs or not and whether they include buyer details required for input tax claims.
Mrs Simiyu said every VAT registered taxpayer should verify the accuracy of their pre-populated VAT returns prior to submission to avoid errors in their filled VAT returns.
