TAX & STAMP DUTY PLANNING
Kaplan & Stratton’s tax and stamp duty planning practice is a multidisciplinary team comprising of practitioners from both our litigation and corporate departments. Our tax specialists provide advice on all aspects of Kenya’s direct and indirect taxes and revenue law for individuals and corporate/institutional clients.
Our clients range from publicly traded companies to small start-up ventures in a wide range of businesses. We cover many areas, including the formation and capital structure of corporations, acquisitions, divestitures, tax-free reorganizations, spinoffs, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts, debt and equity offerings and lending and financing transactions.
We have extensive experience in representing taxpayers in tax controversies with the Kenya Revenue Authority and other taxing authorities. We have represented clients at the Tribunals, High Court and Court of Appeal levels.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
- Representing Care International on a PAYE tax dispute arising from an agreement with the Kenyan Government.
- Successfully obtained a decision from the High Court which sets out the parameters within which the Kenya Revenue Authority can demand payment of withholding tax; representing Barclays Bank against the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes on a withholding tax claim. The issue in dispute was whether payments to credit card companies were in respect of services and therefore subject to withholding tax.
- Represented Bata Kenya on an appeal from the Tax Appeals transfer pricing assessment. The outcome of the appeal would have impacted the methods that the client used in determining the arm’s length nature of its transactions and would also set a precedent for establishing the extent to which the Kenya Revenue Authority can disregard the transfer pricing methods used by a tax payer. The matter was settled out of court.
- Successfully argued a judicial review application for British American Tobacco Kenya that quashed a claim by the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes for payment of excise duty.
- Representing Coca Cola in a value added tax (VAT) appeal to the High Court. The Appeal is against the VAT Tribunal’s decision in respect of VAT on exported services. The Tribunal held that the marketing services provided by Coca Cola to affiliated companies outside Kenya were locally consumed services and liable to payment of VAT. The outcome of the appeal will set down the ‘use and consumption’ test with regards to exported services and will also determine the extent to which Kenyan Courts are willing to uphold the VAT Guidelines issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which are applied worldwide.
- Represented BATA Kenya Limited in an appeal against a Transfer Pricing Assessment by the Kenya Revenue Authority.
- Advised on a breach of contract claim between I&M Bank and Emerging Markets Payments (EMP) for the provisions of an integrated payment system. The matter involved a complex payment structure in the Fintech space.
- Specialist taxation advisory work.
