•Alongside the new day to day remittance of taxes, the betting firm will also now be required to take into account emerging concerns such as responsible gambling, protection of children from betting practices and undertake CSR initiatives.
•Currently KRA collects 7.6 percent on stakes and 20percent withholding on winnings.
Image: JACKTONE LAWI
Real-time tax collection from betting firms has seen KRA collect Sh8.7 billion in six months a 30 percent jump compared to collections in the first half of the year.
The revenue was mostly realised from 36 companies that had been incorporated in the first three phases of the programme.
Currently Kenya Revenue Authority levies 7.6 percent on stakes and 20 percent withholding on winnings.
So this essentially means if you're betting with Sh100 an initial Sh7.5 will be deducted leaving you with sh92.5 to place the bet.
If the bet goes ahead and you win say Sh1,000, KRA will deduct the Sh200 withholding tax on winnings.
For a Sh100 shillings bet that successfully wins Sh1,000, the taxman will have collect a total Sh208.
These are the two taxes that betting firms are delivering in real-time.
To increase the collection, the taxman has now incorporated an additional 87 companies to the real-time collection system.
"This has recorded significant growth in revenue collections and KRA is now able to account for its collected revenue," said BCLB board chairperson Jane Mutua.
The online betting firms had been granted a May 12 deadline to develop an M-Pesa pay tax application programming interface and a data transmission service to initiate the real-time tax remittances.
The new players will now be required to compute betting taxes after midnight every day and remit the same to the taxman by 7am the following morning via the KRA’s pay bill numbers.
“All gaming operators in Kenya must onboard into the system those unable will not be licensed to operate in the country,” added Mutua.
Alongside the new day-to-day tax remittance, the betting firms will also be required to take into account emerging concerns such as responsible gambling, protection of children from betting practices and undertake CSR initiatives.
Safaricom's 2022 data showed that Kenyans are on average pumping Sh463 million every day into betting activities, defying government efforts to curb the activity through higher taxation and tighter regulations.
Once the new phase of integration is complete an estimated 123 online bookmakers will now be remitting betting taxes on a real-time basis to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) via Safaricom’s mobile-money platform M-Pesa.
The taxman says to further enhance compliance betting firms will now be required to integrate systems as part of the registration. According to KRA the linkage has eased tax compliance by betting firms.
Previous to the real-time data transmission and tax remittance, betting taxes were due on the 20th day of the the subsequent month.
Online betting is very popular among the youth, both employed and jobless who see it as an opportunity to make quick money.
The taxman is this year targeting record collection from the betting sector after netting Sh21 billion last year which was a growth from Sh17 billion recorded in 2021.