Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society”. Indeed, a state cannot run a democracy well without taxation, and a taxation system cannot be run well without a democracy. Like other legal issue, tax has the constitution as its initial source. It then finds its way into legislation that operationalizes these constitutional provisions. However, different governments have their own ways of creating taxation policies depending on what they hope to achieve for their electorate (…..or for itself as is the sad situation in this our great republic!) For a long time now especially during the Moi Regime, tax collection suffered greatly. Poor compliance in the informal sector, narrow coverage of existing tax instruments, poor tax collection and tax administration efforts. No one enjoys paying taxes and would be more than happy to have this burden removed. It is therefore important that in an attempt by state to reduce the ‘load of taxation’, ...
Through the eye of a lawyer with a passion for human rights and social justice...