In its most recent effort to find cross-border tax fraudsters, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) wants to build a new system that will receive and analyze information from more than 130 nations.
According to KRA, the system would improve information processing and sharing with other tax jurisdictions worldwide so that the nation may make use of its current network of over 130 information exchange partners.
According to the taxman, it had been getting a lot of data from its partners to analyze and find tax evasion but was overloaded, which caused delays in processing the data and lost money. The KRA is currently seeking a consultant to provide and install an exchange of information system that will, among other things, automatically generate email notifications each time data is received in the OECD common transmission system (CTS) and keep track of the status of each request.
The system would make sure that data is automatically exchanged and reported on a country-by-country basis, and it will also enable the KRA to share tax ruling data on various businesses and individuals.
“There is a need for a system that will integrate the pool of information provided by partner jurisdictions via the OECD common transmission system,” claims KRA in a procurement document.
Better tracking of requests from our partners or the Competent Authority Office (CAO) is also required. Additionally, there is a requirement for an effective (quick) and efficient (correct) method of reporting.
The KRA claims that the system will improve security for data storage and transmission between it and other taxing jurisdictions. All requests for information from partners are currently handled by the KRA’s CAO in the Department of Intelligence, Strategic Operations, investigations, and enforcement. The method is primarily manual and calls for the KRA employees to maintain such information on spreadsheets with specific officers assigned to monitor the status of requests. Given the growing interdependence of Kenya’s financial activities with those of the rest of the globe, the system’s installation will represent the most recent advancement in KRA’s campaign against tax evasion.
The adoption of cross-border tax avoidance methods was named by the taxman as one of the strategic risks that could impede revenue growth under the seventh business plan. According to the KRA, leveraging the benefits of multilateral information exchange with other tax jurisdictions could contribute to boosting revenue growth.
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