Finance Bill 2023
Housing levy, higher fuel costs to hit Kenyans starting July 1st
President William Ruto has assented to the Finance Bill, 2023 and the Appropriations Bill, 2023 ushering in a new age of strained household earnings as the housing levy and 16 percent VAT on fuel are expected to thrust millions of Kenyans into harder economic circumstances beginning on July 1st. Finance Bill 2023 introduces a number of tax measures that Dr Ruto hopes will raise enough resources to finance his Kenya Kwanza administration manifesto and campaign promises such as affordable housing. As the government increases the existing 8 percent fuel VAT to 16 percent, thousands of motorists should expect to pay more at the pump. The…
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Government laying digital traps to tax virtual music
The word music appears just once in Kenya’s 510-page Economic Survey 2023, perhaps an indication of the loud but minuscule role the segment plays in the country’s economy. Despite its enormous potential, the music industry remains a footnote in Kenya’s economy only featuring lumped under the broad arts, entertainment, and recreation segment. The survey statistics show that the arts, entertainment, and recreation GDP contributed Kes28 million to Kenya’s wealth last year. Although the music industry is struggling in Kenya, signs of success have began streaming in as Kenyan artists push through digital platforms in search of the Afrobeat and Amapiano success, and the taxman cannot…
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The IMF taxes on Africa’s petty traders of Nyamakima
I was a cab reporter on the City beat when Tuskys was evicted from its 11-year-old iconic BebaBeba outlet in the middle of Nairobi, that up till then had looked as the most ideal location for a retailer, on the bus route to Nairobi middle class surburbs north of the city. Tuskys at the time had not yet began hurtling towards the retail sector collapse. It was a big stable brand. In 2017, the retail sector troubles were being diagnosed as the legacy mismanagement of state linked Uchumi, where patronage had compromised supply contracting diverting money from real suppliers to related parties and insider shell companies. Tuskys explained that…
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Ruto hits poor making Sh1400 daily with turnover tax
Kenya’s smallest businesses making about Kes1,400 a day or Kes500,000 a year will now be required to pay turnover tax after the Kenya Kwanza government unveiled the regimes’ first money bill that seeks to raise additional Kes300 billion in new taxes. In the new Finance Bill 2023, Treasury wants to bring down the threshold for turnover tax from Kes1 million to Kes500,000. The tax will now be levied or the small businesses who make up to Kes15 million a year down from Kes50 million. This means the bodaboda and mama mbogas in the informal sector who were not under the taxman’s radar will now be…
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