CPA Simon Maina

Tax Consultant

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX @HonMoses_Kuria Good question

[Cyprian, Is Nyakundi @C_NyaKundiH]

After SACCOs, Banks And M-Pesa Are Next As Kenyans Become Guarantors For A Debt Crisis They Never Ate

Kenyans must stop asking why Kenya has not defaulted and start asking who is being prepared to carry the default when the music finally stops.

Ghana was here.

Sri Lanka was here.

Zambia was here.

Argentina was here.

Lebanon was here.

The script is always the same, because a broke government borrows until lenders get tired, taxes until citizens are dry, leans on banks until credit disappears, pushes pain into pensions and domestic savings, then tells the public that sacrifice is needed to save the country.

That is why the SACCO story should scare Kenyans more than they currently seem scared, because SACCO savings are not government money, they are the private sweat of teachers, police officers, nurses, farmers, matatu people, boda riders, mama mbogas, small traders and workers who ran there after banks abandoned them.

In every default story, the government does not stand alone at the edge of the cliff, because it drags citizens there as guarantors through inflation, taxes, currency pain, bank losses, pension restructuring, frozen credit and forced patriotic nonsense dressed up as national recovery.

Banks already formed a comfortable debt circle with government, where lending to Treasury became safer and sweeter than lending to SMEs, which slowly choked biashara, starved the real economy and turned ordinary Kenyans into beggars inside their own banking system.

Now the same government that fed banks with public debt is walking into SACCOs, looking at the last pool of money ordinary Kenyans still controlled after taxes, deductions, mobile money charges, fuel prices, school fees and rent had already eaten their pockets.

The anus cannot be stitched to stop diarrhoea.

A debt crisis cannot be solved by raiding SACCOs, squeezing banks, eyeing M-Pesa, selling public assets and pretending that every desperate grab is an infrastructure plan.

Ghana called it domestic debt exchange.

Sri Lanka called it restructuring.

Argentina called it emergency controls.

Lebanon left people staring at bank balances they could not freely touch.

Kenya will give it a cleaner name, maybe national development, domestic resource mobilisation, infrastructure financing or patriotic investment, but the meaning will be the same.

The citizens are being prepared as guarantors for debts they never ate.

Kenyans are not angry enough, because if they understood where this road ends, they would know SACCOs are not the final target, they are the warning shot before banks, M-Pesa and every private pool of money still breathing outside Treasury’s hands.

The money is finished.

[Julians Amboko @AmbokoJH]

The key thing in this statement is not that we are being reminded to file returns ahead of June 30th, it is that the authority has ruled out extension.

Two things:

1. Last year, we had an extension to July 5th. The authority is signaling no intention of repeating this
2. I am one of those who called for an extension this year after the challenges we have faced with filing in the debut era of Income & Expenses validation & pre-populated returns

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@KRACare @RuchaMicke There is no problem with his portal. I am running numerous etims, and the whole system is just down! Its unfortunate that we beg daily for etims to work so that clients can invoice

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX @KRACare @KRACorporate I totally agree, they deserve a raise

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX @p_gichuki By making it difficult for taxman to audit the taxpayer

[Ndindi Nyoro @NdindiNyoro]

Unprecedented. Elon Musk is the First Dollar Trillionaire in the World. Now with a net worth of $ 1.1Trillion following the listing of SpaceX today.

As the wealthiest person in the World, the gap between him and number 2 is is over $800. He is wealthier than number 2,3,4 and 5 combined. Larry Page (Google), Sergey Brin (Google), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Larry Ellison (Oracle).

Interestingly, all his businesses are unconventional. Tesla (Electric Cars and Tech), SpaceX (Exploration, Rockets, Spacecraft, AI, Starlink is also part of the company, Boring Company (Tunneling) and Neuralink (Brain implant company).

His wealth of approximately Ksh 143 Trillion can pay all our Public debt and consequently fund our budget for 35 years without Kenyans having to pay any taxes or levies to government Ceteris Paribus. With debt service exempted since there will be none to service.

Ingenuity, hard work, foresight and some level of obsession and not being “normal” are some of the attributes that are evident.

We are African and Africa is our Business..

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WorldCupMedia FRANCE

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX @kahome_steve You have a missed call here. Please share your views

[Eric @amerix]

Women should know that,

Submission is not silence.

Neither is it slavery nor servitude.

Submission is the wisdom to understand structure.

A home with two captains and no first mate does not sail anywhere.

It will drift and collapse.

Order in a home requires hierarchy.

Hierarchy requires the MAN to lead and the woman to support the lead.

This is not weakness at all, but rather the architecture of the family institution.

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX Hapa kwa integration is where we draw the line

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX @Bossyator What a shame!

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX @AmbokoJH We have truly lost creativity and innovation. From copy pasting in ai to now individual copy pasting. Sad

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@BMW Please deliver one for me to Kenya 🇰🇪

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX 😂😂ai itatuonyesha maneno

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@pitandirangu Say no more!

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

Why is iTax loading very slowly nowadays, @KRACare

[CPA Simon Maina @Simon_Myna]

@WashiraX @uber_kenya @KRACare Would you please share Uber and Bolt PINs for us to use in the non-etims expenses CSV file?

[CPA Wachira Joseph @WashiraX]

Kenyan tax law is tricky, and sometimes entertaining.

There are guys called H-N-F.
High Networth Freelancers.

They earn in dollars. Think in dollars. And price everything in dollars.

They have made life particulary difficult for agents. I heard one casually say.

- I get the rent is Ksh 180k, but how much is that in dollars?

And before the agent could reach for the calculator. He told him to forget about it.

But now,

In Kenya, taxes are crazy.

A freelancer earning 10M annually,

Pay taxes worth 3M shillings.

• That is 30%.

They do not like that. So they get creative.

They look for low-tax countries:

- Dubai, Mauritius, cayman islands, etc.

They register brief case companies there.

- As sole directors & sole shareholders.

Clients pay directly to those companies.

The company pays Zero or very low tax.

• Then sends money to Kenya as dividends. Withholding tax about ~5%

- So tax drops from 30% to 5%.

Same 10m. Tax now 500,000.

But unknown to them. There is one dangerous sentence chilling quietly in Kenyan tax law.

It reads:

• Any company managed and controlled from Kenya, is a Kenyan resident company.

Meaning:
- You own the company in Cayman
- But run it from your laptop in Nairobi

That is a Kenyan company.

And Kenyan companies must pay Kenyan taxes.

So one day KRA audits the freelancer. He pays zero taxes in Kenya.

He says he earns dividend from his Cayman company.

KRA asks for the registration documents. And finds he is the sole director.

- KRA Taxes the company in Kenya
- Adds penalties for tax evasion
- And goes for him as the representative to pay

Lesson.

• Structure your offshore company properly.

• Or KRA will structure it for you.

[H i s t o r yKE @HistoryKE]

Throwback: Gen-Zs can’t relate.