Courtroom blocks tax authorities’ Sh80m VAT declare towards LG Kenya

Occasions Tower in Nairobi, the headquarters of the Kenya Income Authority. FILE PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG

The Kenya Income Authority (KRA) has been dealt a blow after the Excessive Courtroom restrained it from claiming tens of millions of shillings in taxes from LG Kenya for advertising companies carried out by its brokers.

The tax officer had insisted that the advertising companies are taxable provides and subsequently topic to tax, and that the consumption of the companies supplied in Kenya is by the unbiased distributors to the Kenyan public, who buy the merchandise.

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LG Kenya mentioned that the cost for the advertising and promoting companies is made by LG Dubai and never LG Kenya, and that the funds can’t be thought-about as revenue accrued in or derived from Kenya and subsequently the funds weren’t topic to withholding tax. .

Within the judgment, Justice David Majanja upheld the choice of the Tax Appeals Tribunal, saying that the advertising companies are consumed by LG Dubai and never by the Kenyan distributors, and that such service is taken into account to be a service exported from Kenya and for which a zero charge applies. of VAT.

“In any occasion, I agree with LG Kenya that the output VAT was zero and subsequently there was no obligation to register for VAT as alleged by the Commissioner and subsequently no deliberate or gross negligence on the a part of LG Kenya to to allow the commissioner to concern an evaluation. the statutory interval of 5 years,” the decide mentioned, dismissing the KRA’s attraction.

The KRA had assessed LG Kenya a Sh2.6 billion evaluation for the interval between 2010 and 2016 in respect of company tax, VAT and withholding tax.

Though the company tax demand had been settled, the KRA charged VAT on LG Kenya’s taxable provides to the Kenyan market amounting to Sh80 million.

The KRA argued that the tax base is the true worth of LG Kenya’s companies, i.e. the revenue attributed to it for the actions it carries out within the Kenyan market.

The court docket heard that the KRA used the portion of revenue attributable to the Kenyan market because the precise worth of companies to the identical market and that this was obtained from Kenya’s precise gross sales in comparison with precise gross sales to the area.

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The decide additionally allowed an attraction by LG Kenya, saying he discovered no motive for the Tribunal to order the KRA to impose the related prices incurred on the withholding tax income.

“As talked about, VAT solely applies to funds and to not prices, and in any case it’s all the time calculated on the ‘gross’ quantity,” the decide mentioned.

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