“Landlords will now pay 30% rental income tax to this new government. Meaning if a tenant pays rent of Ksh20,000 per month, Ksh6,000 will go to KRA. Expect landlords to raise your rent hustlers Tighten your belts, freedom is here,” he tweeted.
The post sent this writer on a fact-finding mission that resulted in the discovery that the tweet was erroneous.
According to a video uploaded on the Kenya Revenue Authority website explaining how rental income is paid, landlords don’t pay 30 per cent of their income monthly.
The video details that if one earns between Sh24,000 and Sh1,250,000, one should consider registering for Monthly Rental Income.
In this category, landlords are charged ONLY 10 per cent of the rental income monthly.
“For example, if you have collected a rental income of Sh300,000 in the month of December, you owe taxpayers 10 per cent of the total which translates to Sh30,000. This amount is paid on or before the 20th of January,” KRA states in the video.
If the monthly income of a person is below Sh24,000 and above Sh1,250,000, the tax will be calculated annually together with other sources of income such as employment income, business income, and interest income among others.
In a month where no rental income is received, the landlord is required to declare nil return or before the 20th of the next month.
This fact check was produced by The Star Newspaper with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, African Fact-Checking Alliance Network, and the United Nations Development Program.
