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Was KRA iTax system a success or a failure leading to the income tax returns deadline? With the recent 30th June deadline for income tax returns, the KRA iTax system has experienced some few challenges which saw KRA give extensions (5th July 2015) to Kenyans who found themselves unable to make returns on time.
There have been many complaints from Kenyans on Social Media that the system is difficult to use, support has been poor, taxpayers experiencing passwords related issues among many others.
Despite all this challenges, KRA has managed to register over 2 million Kenyans into the system and that is commendable.
Through a press release sent to Fenesi.com, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) mentions that through its taxpayer recruitment drive, anchored on online tax filings, they had managed to register approximately 2 million iTax users heralding a new dawn in the use of information technology systems for tax administration.
Any taxpayers who have made their returns before midnight Sunday 5th July will enjoy a penalty free reprieve. For those who missed the new deadline of 5th July will risk of being fined Ksh. 1,000 and Ksh. 10,000 minimum penalty for individuals and companies respectively or 5% of the net tax due.
The use of iTax systems will help KRA to seal existing revenue collection loopholes and thus allowing it to collect more revenue from taxpayers.
According to the press release, KRA had been conducting hands on training and sensitization programmes through tax education programmes that have been running countrywide to support taxpayers register on iTax. KRA has also partnered with appointed licensed and trained intermediary agents who assist taxpayers register and file their returns through the iTax system.
Currently, KRA has six support centers and has a client service presence in 22 Huduma Centers countrywide. The iTax System provides an integrated view of a taxpayer. The system was rolled out in October 2013 in an effort to increase efficiency and ensure better compliance with tax laws.
Although, iTax System aims to give taxpayers the luxury of filing their returns or seeking KRA services, from the comfort of their homes or offices at any hour; day or night. I believe iTax system needs to provide more online support either through an online help center or knowledgebase that will help taxpayers to have a self-service support where they can get real solutions to their problems.
I also think that iTax system needs to improve on its interface by making it more simplier for people to fill in their information.
The error messages encountered on the system should also have more description in order to explain to the user what caused the error and how it can be resolved. This will help more users to feel more comfortable to making returns online and avoid the long queues that were seen on 30th June.
How was your experience using iTax system while making your tax returns? Have your say on the comment form below.
Except for the delays in downloading the form, i found the iTAX forms manageable.
The errors were not clearly defined but with a few trials I was able to solve them.
It also took about 30hrs to get the reply which was worrying since I was filling my tax on the last day.
More people should try for themselves instead of listening to others who gave up too easily. iTAX ni rahisi.