Friday, February 9, 2024 – Your Bank account details are now with the Kenya Revenue Authority after President William Ruto’s government started implementing new regulations to nab tax cheats and money launderers.
The new regulations allow the
taxman to access bank account details to promote transparency and enhance
efforts to curb tax evasion.
This is in line with the Common
Reporting Standard (CRS) regulations which were ratified under the Tax
Procedures Act 2023.
The regulations require
financial institutions to collect and report information relating to their customer's
account details.
Several Kenyans acknowledged
receiving an email from the bank, notifying them of the new changes and
requesting to comply with the directive.
"Under the CRS, tax
authorities require financial institutions to collect and report information
relating to their customers' tax statuses.”
"(Name of bank withheld) is
therefore required by law to review all our customers and establish their tax
residency through customer information provided or self-declaration," read
part of the message.
"We may therefore reach out
to you for any additional information as required by law where the information
currently provided is not sufficient to establish your tax residency."
The individual accounts will be
categorised into two; low and high-value accounts. Lower-value accounts are
accounts that have an amount that does not exceed Ksh160 million (1 million US
dollars) while high-value accounts exceed the said threshold.
Banks will be required to
provide the following details for low-value account holders including the
residence status, address, telephone numbers, email address, and beneficiaries.
On the other hand, enhanced
procedures are applied for high-value account holders including a review of
electronically searchable databases, a review of the master file, and
documentation provided in the past five years.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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