On 18 October 2022, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) issued a notice to the public of its intent to undertake a data collection exercise on rental properties within Nairobi City County and the Nairobi Metropolis. This exercise, which entails moving from house to house to collect information from tenants on their landlords, has elicited reactions from the public. 

Accordingly, the taxman's move raises a lot of questions, for tenants, landlords, and the public at large. Some of the key questions that need to be addressed include: what Rental Income Tax (RIT) is, how it is paid, how KRA can enforce payment of RIT under the law, the parts of the country where KRA's data collection exercise be conducted, whether KRA has conducted similar data collection exercises before and what the key data protection issues are.  

Click here to listen as Alex Kanyi, Shem Otanga, and Joseph Macharia provide some clarity on the taxman's data collection exercise, its legal founding under current law, and the implications to taxpayers and KRA.