I’m seeing more and more politicians are asking the government to compel landlords to give tenants a break in rent for the months of March April and May.
It a populist call but to capitalists this is very disturbing.
Will that charitable landlord get free petrol to drive around with or will Safaricom allow him to make free phonecalls and browse for free? Will that landlord get free groceries at the Tuskys supermarket? Can that landlord get free health-care for his wife and children if he takes them to Gertrude’s?
There is no politician defending landlords.
The middle ground solution is for the government to give landlords government bonds to offset the income they will lose. And this is still bad deal because it will be basically giving the shaft to taxpayers, most of who are not tenants.
If a landlord has been paying taxes to KRA, they should be allowed to claim the forgone rent as tax relief. Hapo ndio tutajua wale hawajakuwa wakilipa ushuru juu tenants wataishi bure, na ukiwafurusha wakureport, KRA inakuja kuuliza effidense ya past tax returns. Ikiwa huna unagongwa fine ya kimataifa. Ideally that’s how it should be, but we have largely jua kali systems in place.
If KRA was serious from the word go, they should have formed a committee that goes round the estates in every county and obtain details of all the residential houses and the owners. From there they ascertain the minimum amount of tax to collect from these landlords. Otherwise this sector is not being properly taxed.
Looks like it will get v messy. This being Kenya.
They do. Mi nishawahai patwa na KRA wakipeleleza rent ni ngapi. Alafu wakahesabu hao ziko ngapi. Lakini na doubt wao huzunguka kila mahali, ni kama hua wanakimbizana na wale already wana lipa taxes.
Very true. They don’t do adequate surveying to determine the upcoming buildings and ascertain how much tax they can collect from these house owners.
It’s populist crap. Is anyone getting free food which is the most basic of all? Most of these politicians live in rented houses and they want to skip rent as they capitalize on the masses for votes
Walitupata early last year. Anyway apart from talking to bank wascrap rental income tax for almost 3 years (10percent × 30months) iwe 3 months rent.