Kenyans who flaunt cash, display a lavish lifestyle on social media and pay little taxes have been put on the spot as Kenya Revenue Authority starts monitoring them.
To curb tax cheating, KRA Commissioner-General Githii Mburu has said it has assigned a number of officers to spend time on social media trawling wealthy persons whose tax records are not in line with what they showcase online.
“In the social media, we have some people posting some nice things. You would see some posting nice houses, cars, taking their families to nice places, and so on. Here, we are not sleeping, when we see those, we see taxes,” Mburu said in an interview with a local daily.
“We have our officers looking, they have gadgets. The key is in very quickly (the number plate) to check. We are working exceptionally hard.”
Mburu further said that those found guilty of tax evasion yet they display a lavish lifestyle will be banned from traveling outside the country.
He said the decision was made in order to add more Kenyans into the tax bracket.
This comes after the authority surpassed its tax collection targets in its October performance.
KRA collected Sh154.3 billion, Sh27 billion more than the Sh142.2 billion it had targeted for the month.
Mburu attributes the 30 per cent increase to widening of the tax bracket and catching cheats.