KRA announces 30% growth in betting tax revenue
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced a 30 per cent in excise duty on betting in the 2022/2023 financial year as compared to 2021/2022.
Excise duty on betting registered a performance of 116.2% after KRA collected Ksh6.640 billion from the sector. The collection was against a target of Ksh5.715 billion, which reflects a surplus collection of Ksh925 million from the tax head.
"Revenue collection in the betting and gaming sector has registered a significant growth after Kenya Revenue Authority collected over Ksh15.100 billion from excise on betting and withholding tax on winnings from the betting sector. The revenue collection reflects a growth of 23.9% from the tax heads, compared to the same period in the financial year 2021/2022," the taxman said in a statement.
According to the taxman, the performance is attributed to the integration of betting companies into the KRA tax system. So far, KRA has integrated 36 companies. KRA has commenced the integration of the final 87 betting firms into the system.
KRA initiatives
The integration began in mid-October 2022, targeting the daily collection of the 7.5 per cent excise duty on stakes and the 20 per cent withholding tax on winnings from the companies.
"Additionally, the integration has made betting and gaming transaction data readily available, which facilitates the verification of daily remittances by taxpayers. Tax-at-source is an emerging global trend moving away from the traditional self-assessment of taxes. This concept allows the collection of tax information and revenue directly at the source of income on a real-time basis," KRA added.
The taxman also announced that a total of 95,732 VAT-registered taxpayers were onboarded to the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS), which led to remittances of Ksh272. 365 billion.
