BY SAM ALFAN.
Kenya Revenue Authority has moved to court seeking to freeze multiple bank accounts of Purma Holding ltd and its directors Mary Wambui and her daughter Purity Njoki over claims of under-declaring tax.
In the case filed before the Commercial division of the High Court, KRA wants the court to issue orders preserving funds in several accounts and prohibiting the banks from releasing or transfering the money in the stated accounts, pending tax assessment and payment or further orders of the court.
The taxman through Ado Moses says Wambui, her daughter and the company failed to declare the correct tax between 2014 and 2019, thereby denying KRA more than ShSh2.5 billion.
The accounts stated are in Equity Bank, KCB, Stanbic Bank and Credit bank in the name of the Purma Holding ltd and its directors.
“The amounts held by aforesaid respondents banks be preserved pending the issuance of a tax assessments and recovery of taxes or until further court orders or impose such terms as to giving security for the tsxes that shall be found due,” said taxman.
The two have since been charged with tax evasion after they presented themselves in court in December following weeks of hide and seek with the police.
Wambui was in court last week, pleading with the court to allow her travel to Turkey for purchase of furniture for a hotel she is putting up in Nairobi.
Although the prosecution opposed the release of her passport for purposes of traveling, chief magistrate Felix Kombo ordered her to deposit a further Sh15 million in court, to get the passport.
In the latest application, the taxman says he has reasons to believe that Purma Holding ltd and its directors are engaged in tax evasion by failing to declare the correct amount of income or taxes for purposes of both income tax and value-added-tax for the tax period 2014 to 2019.
According to court documents filed before high court commercial and tax division, the taxman adds that the preliminary investigations findings indicate that Purma Holding ltd and its directors have under declared the income in their self-declared income and tax and VAT returns resulting to revenue to revenue loss of Sh2,535, 410,527.00 comprising of Sh1, 937,529,876 on account of income tax and further Sh597, 580, 651on account of value added tax.
According to the taxman investigations, other than funds held by the banks, there are no known assets belonging to Purma Holding ltd and its directors capable of satisfying the taxes to be found due and payable.
“Preliminary findings indicate Purma Holding ltd and its directors Mary Wambui and her daughter Purity Njoki may have evaded payment of taxes amounting to Sh2, 535, 410,527.00 through under declaration of income tax and VAT between the years 2014 to 2019”, adds KRA.
The taxman adds that the transaction in their bank accounts revealed that the company received a total of Sh. 9,889,859,970 into their aforesaid bank account numbers between the years 2014 and 2019 whereas in their ITax ledger, the same amounts were not reflected.
This is after KRA checked their online tax filing system-ITax for the purpose of establishing the compliance status of the company directors and it was noticed the company and its directors had not correctly or fully disclosed its income tax purpose.
