Kenya’s KRA Collects Over $77.5M as Tax Payment from Crypto Traders

As crypto adoption grows, several countries have sought to bring the industry under their regulatory scope. The East African country Kenya is the latest to join the trend.

According to a local report, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) collected over $77.5 million from 384 crypto traders for the first time. This is part of the agency’s effort to regulate and tax the digital asset market activities in the African country.

Kenya Taxes Crypto Users

Each crypto trader who participated in the tax payment contributed an average of $201,620, or $16,284.74 monthly. The collection ended in the past financial year, which ended in June 2024. However, it is unclear whether these customers are individuals or companies, and the types of taxes they pay have yet to be specified.

The KRA chairman, Anthony Mwaura, stressed that this is the first time crypto traders will contribute to the national tax revenue. He added that the tax agency intends to collect more taxes from the industry, which has been challenging to tax. The funds collected will be used for development projects to help the country’s economy.

The tax agency explained that local crypto traders exchanged over $18.6 billion between 2021 and 2022, worth 20% of the country’s gross domestic product.

The report stated that the KRA aims to create a system for taxing crypto transactions. The government agency believes this will ensure fair taxation and compliance among traders as digital currencies become more popular.

To achieve its goal, the financial watchdog will work with crypto exchanges to retrieve local traders’ information and establish a system that mandates crypto users to pay their taxes. The KRA is also running campaigns to educate traders about their tax responsibilities. The KRA aims to raise as much as $465.2 million from crypto taxes if discussions between its chairman and the country’s sovereign bank are successful.

More Crypto Taxation

Like Kenya, various countries have hinted at their interest in taxing crypto transactions. Last month, Denmark’s tax agency proposed a bill to tax unrealized gains from local investors’ crypto holdings.

In other news, another African country, Nigeria, proposed a bill to tax crypto firms. The country’s tax authority believed this would help regulate the country’s crypto market activities.