Tax Case Law

A director of the above-named company lived in a building owned by the company. KRA raised a tax demand for Shs 18,480,485 as income tax arrears falling under Pay as you earn. The contention was whether a director is an employee of a company and whether there was any benefit assessable. It was ruled that...... Continue reading→

Digital box limited an electronics dealer based in Luthuli avenue Nairobi Filed income tax and VAT returns which the revenue authority considered to be under declared by over Sh. 700 Million. The company raised an objection to the commissioner which was turned down confirming the previous assessment. Being aggrieved by the commissioner’s objection decision the...... Continue reading→

PanalPina a logistics company was contracted by its clients in the Netherlands for purposes of exporting flowers from Kenya. As any other exporter the company filed claims for Value Added Tax refunds for the months of January 2016 and December 2015 for the sum of kshs 2,221,584 and 2,168,449. The basis of their refund claim...... Continue reading→

The taxpayer bought land in Kiambu on which some commercial buildings stood. VAT of Ksh.11,200,008.00 was charged which the buyer was quite reluctant to pay, nevertheless he paid on insistence by the seller hoping to get a refund. The bone of contention in the case was how the land was viewed. The charge was based...... Continue reading→

The coca cola company and KRA were embroiled in a dispute that lasted to nearly a decade over VAT on exported services. Coca Cola Central East and west Africa Ltd. had been offering marketing promotional services to Coca Cola Export company, a company based in the USA. KRA’s argument was that the promotional activities attracted...... Continue reading→

Paleah Stores Ltd.  a provisions store based in Embu had been under paying tax between the years 2008 and 2014 based on what they termed as bad professional advice. Through an investigation conducted through their bank accounts it was established that they had been grossly underpaying their VAT and Income tax. Further they had not...... Continue reading→

Ruaraka diversified investments ltd sold property to Garden city ltd and Safaricom Plc where the Garden city mall sits. The company argued that the sale of land was subject to capital gains tax and went ahead to request for a private ruling in favour of their position. KRA on the other hand held that this...... Continue reading→

Equity bank established an employee share ownership scheme in 2005 for purposes of encouraging their employees to acquire shares in the company. In a compliance audit carried out by KRA in 2016 on PAYE remittances, it was established that the bank had not subjected the ESOP benefit to PAYE deductions and a tax demand was...... Continue reading→

Sony Holdings Ltd a property developer owns the Westgate mall which was attacked by terrorists on 21 September 2013. The mall was out of business for some years following the incident and would later receive Sh 4.4 Billion in compensation from their insurers Kenindia. Sony Holdings received Sh1.2 billion in loss of rent and Sh3.1...... Continue reading→