Stories that begin with something visible and ask what larger system is quietly being revealed.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: KRA billed a Malindi restaurant KSh 40 million, nearly three-quarters of its sales, taking the till figures as if they were profit. The High Court held the demand arbitrary and oppressive, made on the wrong law and without a fair hearing, and quashed it, though the taxman may reassess.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: KRA billed Amply, an airtime dealer, KSh 41 million by recasting its exempt airtime sales as a taxable distribution service. The tribunal read the exemption as written, struck the time-barred year on its own motion, and vacated the VAT, but upheld an income-tax head Amply never challenged.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: KRA billed the Uriri development fund KSh 51 million in PAYE and withholding taxes reaching back to 2013. The tribunal held the fund had no duty to deduct before it was registered in 2018, struck the earlier years as time-barred, but upheld the rest for want of records.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: KRA taxed a godown landlord KSh 64 million for years of undeclared rent. He said he had handed over his documents, but could not prove he ever delivered them and only produced them buried in his submissions. The tribunal upheld the bill, striking only the time-barred year.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: Stephen Osiro had a county salary and many side hustles, rent, farming, shares and interest, that he never declared. KRA taxed his bank deposits and billed him KSh 71 million. With no records and two unfiled years, the tribunal held the burden was his and dismissed the appeal.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: Virgin Estate's deductions were real, but the bank held the proof until six months after KRA's decision. The tribunal held it could only weigh evidence that was before the Commissioner at the objection stage, so the late documents could not save it, though the five-year limit struck the oldest years.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: KRA taxed Doshi's bank deposits as income, a KSh 88 million bill. Through a tribunal, the High Court and back again, Doshi won on the COVID tax rate and its proven forex losses, but lost on every figure it could not tie to a clear, indexed reconciliation.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: Letshego made only exempt loans and filed nil VAT, but it carried a dormant VAT registration inherited from 2004. Because it was still a registered person, the courts held it owed reverse VAT on its imported services, and a registration it never cancelled cost it KSh 93 million.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: Ladybird's accountant filled its system with fake invoices, and KRA billed the company KSh 120 million on the phantom sales. Ladybird had a real defence that it was the victim, but it filed its appeal beyond the thirty-day limit, and the tribunal struck it out without reaching the fraud.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: Nakumatt paid a technology firm a shilling on every loyalty point it ran, and treated it as a loss on a sale of points. The courts read the contract, found a firm managing the whole scheme, and held the shilling was a management fee subject to withholding tax, a KSh 128 million bill.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: KRA demanded withholding tax on fees McKinsey Kenya paid to its South African affiliate. McKinsey pointed to the double-tax treaty: professional fees are business profits, and with no permanent establishment here only South Africa could tax them. The High Court dismissed KRA's appeal.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎: Brookhouse let teachers' children attend at a discount, taxed lightly on a 2006 KRA letter. When an audit recast the discount as a benefit from employment, the High Court held it was taxable pay at full value and that the old letter did not bind the taxman, leaving a KSh 187 million bill.
Tax and financial judgement · 10 Nov 2026 · 4 min read · Paid