A new Amendment Bill seeking to ensure all gamblers part with 20 percent of their winnings is in the offing.
The Bill, which is a planned re-introduction of a 20 percent tax on winnings, will see the government earn more from gambling.
If passed, betting and gaming companies will withhold a fifth of the sums won by punters to be remitted to the taxman — piling additional tax burden on an industry that is already paying 35 percent of gross earnings to the exchequer.
“The Bill seeks to amend the Income Tax Act to introduce a tax on winnings,” says the proposed law that was tabled in Parliament last week.
If the bill goes through, KRA will demand that betting companies deduct and remit the 20 percent withholding tax on every gaming win.
This comes even as gambling firms protested the move to tax them more, with the government slapping them with 35 percent tax on their revenues, which took effect in January 2017.
According to reports, eight major players in the betting sector paid Sh4.7 billion in taxes over the three-year period ending 2016.