Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced strict new penalties targeting Kenyans who failed to file their tax returns.

KRA will now start de-activating individual and company pins that do not file their tax returns and have not migrated to its online tax returns filing system (iTax).

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According to KRA’s Chief Manager Taxpayer Services Nairobi Region, Judith Njagi, the move would compel non-compliant taxpayers to file their returns as blocked pins cannot transact any business until they are activated.

“The penalty for late filling of tax returns for those employed will amount to a penalty of 25 per cent of tax due or Sh10,000 depending on which is higher,” Njagi was quoted by the Business Daily.

The penalty is Sh50,000 for turnover tax which is paid on a quarterly basis, and any other case is five per cent of tax due or Sh20,000.

The taxman raised the fine for late filing of returns by 20 times and the State will now fine taxpayers Sh20,000 up from Sh1,000.

The penalties were enacted under the Tax Procedures Act number 29 of 2015.

Failure to submit a tax document as required by law, one will be charged Sh1,000 per day, maximum Sh50,000.

Official data shows that half of Kenya's registered taxpayers (2.4 million people) failed to meet KRA's June 30 deadline for filing returns.

The number is higher than the 2.3 million Kenyans who breached the tax return filing deadline within the same period in the 2015 financial year.