A CONTRACTOR BASED IN COASTAL REGION CHARGED WITH TAX EVASION AMOUNTING TO 41M

A CONTRACTOR BASED IN COASTAL REGION CHARGED WITH TAX EVASION AMOUNTING TO 41M

By Donald Kogai

A building contractor was arraigned at Mombasa law court and charged with evading payment of taxes totaling to Ksh41,087,414.

The suspect, Josuph Okumu Ouma and his firm Jomoyosh Building Contractors Limited were charged with nine counts of evading payment of income tax worth Ksh31,417,070 and one count of evading Ksh9,670,344.

In regard to his income tax obligation, Mr. Ouma was charged that, being a Director of Jomoyosh Building Contractors, while earning taxable income, jointly with others not before the court, unlawfully made incorrect statements in their Income Tax Return for four consecutive years.

This reduced the company’s Corporate Tax liability by a total of Ksh31,417,070.

In a separate charged Ouma pleaded not guilty to unlawfully making incorrect statements in his Value Added Tax return for the months of January 2015 to December 2018, which reduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) liability by Ksh 9,670,344.

The accused was released on a bond two million surety of the same or cash bail of 0.5 million Kenya shillings pending further directions on 09th December 2019.

In the same Court lower criminal Court a business lady was also charged with tax evasion amounting to 2,916,950 million Kenya shillings.

The accused Rebecah Akinyi Ouma denied the charges against her of being a registered taxpayer and while earning taxable income, unlawfully defaulted on a tax obligation by failing to file and remit her individual Income Tax Return amounting to Ksh2,916,950 for the years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

She pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on a bond of 1 million surety of the or a cash bail of 0.2 million Kenya shillings.