Why Kenyan taxpayers look at social media

In our series of letters from African journalists, media and communications trainer Joseph Warungu looks at why Kenyans are being taken aback by what they post on social media.

Imagine this: You are having a great Christmas holiday abroad in a unique place. You walk into an elegant restaurant and ask for a great meal. And since you have a loyal group of followers on social media, you decide to take a good photo of a hearty meal and share it.

How else would people know that you have eaten food that your friends in your village have never seen in your life and whose name you can’t even pronounce?

And when you click “share”, the immediate reaction is, “Oooh, mmh, nice! I’m looking at you! Wow!” There are some nice quick comments about how they would like to be there.

But if Kenya is now another hidden follower, every step you take, every photo you post, every meal you eat, every car you show, every house you show you track.

This loyal follower is a taxpayer.

You see, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has confirmed that it uses communication technology to enforce tax compliance.

This includes blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining technologies.

The camera does not lie

“The KRA has a dedicated team whose job, in addition to other risk-based analyzes based on intelligence, is to study the lives of targeted taxpayers.

“This can lead to seeing social media profiles of targeted people in some cases,” a KRA spokesperson told me.

“Isn’t this a violation of people’s privacy?” I wonder.

“No,” he said.

I decide to encourage more taxpayers.

How does the KRA cope with someone’s life – as described on social media – with their tax compliance? After all, the goods or goods they display on the net may not belong to them.

The story goes on

Well, it turns out that the taxpayer has a very effective media monitoring team that looks at the landscape to see if it meets the rules of tax return.

“The KRA will be able to verify whether the declared income and taxes paid are in line with the lifestyle portrayed. Also, note that the KRA is able to access and exchange information with other government agencies through the Multi-Agency Group framework.”

This is frightening. In fact, when the KRA chief commissioner said the authorities were using technology to monitor tax compliance, his music video went viral and the Kenyans went to bananas to declare their wealth.

Business or economy class?

And the taxpayer noticed a change.

“There has been a steady increase in the number of taxpayers in a hurry to verify their tax compliance status. Recently, we have seen an increase of over 60% in the number of applications for tax compliance certificates submitted on the online i-Tax platform.”

When the initial shock of a taxpayer canvas was over, the Kenyans sought agility by creating their own humorous media to explain what the taxpayer was doing.

One of the images that went viral was the image of a bird looking out of the window of an airplane, telling a confused passenger in the middle of the flight, “Hey, I’m checking to see if your business class or economy class is sitting.”

The message from the taxpayer, or rather the tax bird, is: “If you can pay for business class, you can certainly declare a little more in your tax returns.”

So what led the KRA to come up with these clever methods for tax evaders or those who are actually very conservative when it comes to tax returns?

Simply for tax purposes.

Since Kenya declared the first Covid-19 case in March 2020, the country has increased its shilling by 1.42 trillion Kenyan public debt ($ 12.5 million, £ 9.3 million).

Part of the condition attached to Kenya’s $ 2.34 billion FDF loan is that the country increase its tax collection; therefore, the taxpayer is harassing Kenyans online.

A well-placed source told me that the government’s message to the KRA was simple: “You need to make a lot more money by finding two million new taxpayers.”

And, guess where the best place to find these people is – yes, you got it – on social media!

The tax collector immediately went to work and exceeded expectations. In a statement issued in October, the KRA announced that the revenue-raising target for the first quarter exceeded $ 132 billion.

He admits that he has received considerable support online.

“Among other content creators on Twitter (KoT) who have actively conceptualized KRA’s wise content about taxpayers’ commitments to taxpayers, they have a positive impact on tax compliance.”

So while I’m getting ready to capture the big moment of my Christmas holiday with the camera, rest assured that I’ll be wearing cheap t-shirts and jeans, with my rugged face marked against a bumpy bike.

I don’t want to give the taxpayer an excuse to make that call.

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