The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has asked members of the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning to back proposed amendments to tax laws aimed at strengthening revenue collection and enforcement powers.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

Through the KRA (Amendment) Bill, 2026, the authority is seeking to expand its enforcement mandate beyond traditional tax collection.

Under the Bill, KRA would be empowered to pursue employers who deduct pension contributions from workers’ salaries but fail to remit the funds to retirement schemes.

The proposal would allow the tax authority to use recovery tools it already applies to tax arrears, including issuing agency notices, obtaining garnishee orders, freezing bank accounts, and preserving assets belonging to non-compliant employers.

📌 What You Need to Know

If enacted, the changes would enable KRA to take action against employers who withhold pension deductions without forwarding them to pension schemes, a practice that has left some workers discovering missing contributions years later.

As of June 2026, unremitted pension contributions stand at Ksh66.41 billion, down from a previous high of Ksh72.5 billion, according to official data.

These arrears largely represent salary deductions collected from employees but not transferred to their respective pension schemes by employers.

The Bill also seeks to align the KRA Act with current legislation by removing references to repealed laws and statutes that the authority no longer administers.

KRA says the reforms are intended to improve legal clarity and operational efficiency, arguing that parts of the current framework remain outdated and inconsistent with its current mandate.

“Chair, very few Kenyans carry the burden of taxation in this country. Only about 12,000 companies pay taxes due to them. This has to change,” KRA Commissioner General Adan Mohamed told the committee on June 12.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke