Tax

Managing tax and statutory compliance is no longer an option. Unlike before, currently regulators and administrators have heavily invested in the capacity of their officers and automated most if not all of their functions. Increased international trade, legislation of new tax laws, annual amendments to the existing tax laws, new accounting standards, and annual amendments to the accounting standards and increased demands from regulators/tax authorities are all redefining the scope of tax and finance functions. 
This is in addition to the increased reporting and disclosure requirements by revenue authorities and regulators. This coupled with the economic meltdown has complicated the regulatory environment. 
As such, companies are looking for more innovative, cost-effective, consistent and sustainable means of managing and meeting their compliance obligations. 
SKM tax compliance management team has vast experience in assisting clients manage and meet their obligations in an innovative, cost-effective, consistent and sustainable way.

Our services include

• Tax compliance and related tax planning.
• Tax provision preparation.
• Statutory accounting, bookkeeping and payroll compliance.
• Compliance process.

SKM provides expert tax advisory services tailored to your unique needs. Whether you are an individual, a small business, or a large corporation, we help you navigate complex tax regulations, optimize your tax strategies, and minimize your tax liabilities. With years of experience and in-depth knowledge of tax laws, we are your trusted partner for comprehensive tax planning and compliance.
The scope of the tax advisory services will depend on the specific nature of each of your queries or requests for tax advisory services.

Our tax health check services provide a comprehensive review of your current tax situation, identifying potential areas of risk, opportunities for optimization, and compliance issues. This service is designed to give you peace of mind and actionable insights to improve your tax position.

Generally, our tax health check services shall entail

1. Tax Compliance Review: We assess your previous tax filings to ensure they are accurate and comply with relevant laws and regulations.
2. Risk Assessment: Our team identifies any potential risks or red flags in your tax history that could trigger an audit or penalties.
3. Optimization Opportunities: We analyse your current tax strategies and suggest ways to optimize your tax position.
4. Future Tax Planning: Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for future tax planning.
5. Tailored Recommendations: Our tax advisors provide personalized recommendations based on your unique situation, helping you take actionable steps toward a healthier tax position.

International trade, investments, information technology and outsourced manufacturing have weaved the economies of diverse countries together. Essentially, we are increasingly experiencing economic integration of global markets.

Globalization has been credited with helping shift wealth to less-developed countries. However, globalization is also often blamed for the loss of wealth from developed countries through inflated transfer pricing. Most multinationals entities have been on the receiving on this regard and most revenue authorities from developing nations have argued that the traditional transfer pricing documentation is not sufficient to assess whether cross border transactions are in conformity with the arm’s length principle.

In response to this gap, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development developed Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) action plans. This action plans have increased the disclosure and the reporting requirements for multinational entities.

Multinationals are therefore required to have a transfer pricing documentation and an up-to-date contemporaneous transfer pricing policy to support all their cross-border transactions.

Further, multinationals are required under the BEPS action plans to comply with country-by-country reporting, maintain a local file and a master file and update their Transfer pricing policies every time there is a material change in the operating model or after every three years.

At SKM we help clients to develop contemporaneous defensible transfer pricing policies, document the policies and outcomes and assist clients implement the transfer pricing. We also assist the client in depositing the transfer pricing policy with the Kenya revenue authority and responding to any questions raised therefrom.

Indirect taxes (VAT, excise and customs duty) are the most involving and as such complying with these obligations can be quite mind boggling and if not well handled can easily result to huge tax liabilities.

While planning and seeking timely advice can increase compliance, poor planning and failure to seek proper advice can result into huge tax liabilities.

If well managed, effective indirect tax management can improve cash flow and working capital besides avoiding any penalties and interest arising from noncompliance.

Our tax team is up to date and has vast experience that cuts across all industries in indirect tax matters and has assisted many clients plan, manage and meet their indirect tax obligations quite effortlessly.

In these challenging economic times, every shilling saved counts. Companies across the world are quite keen in cutting costs, increasing operational efficiency and thus increasing profitability.

Among the expenses that companies have to pay are taxes. Failure by companies to pay their fair share of tax results to tax assessments, penalties and interest. 
Similarly, when the tax obligations for a company are not well managed, a company might end up paying more tax than they ought to. As such, companies need to strike a balance, that is, pay the correct amount for taxes.

Tax planning enables organisations to operate in a tax optimal manner and as such pay the correct tax.

In evaluating whether your organisation has planned its tax affairs, the following questions are pertinent:

•  Are you paying more tax than you ought to?
• Is your organisation operating in a tax optimal manner?
• What is your effective tax rate?

Our tax teams have a diverse experience and have helped our clients integrate tax planning into their business operations. Our clients have realized significant tax savings, improved cash flow positions, increased working capital and reduced tax non-compliance risk.

Now, more than ever, tax needs to be an integral part of strategic business decisions.

Some of the strategic goals for organisations include expanding their market base and/or diversification of their products.

Expansion can be through setting up a new entity in new market areas, acquisition of an already exciting entity, a merger or a buy in.

Whereas expansion through a merger, buy in or acquisition is an easy way of increasing the organisation’s market share, companies adopting this expansion model can also inherit huge undisclosed liabilities and/or ghost assets. This may significantly negatively affect the financial and or asset position of the company and leave the organisation worse off than it was before the acquisition, merger or buy in.

SKM’s Transaction Services team which is comprised of the financial due diligence team, tax due diligence team and the legal due diligence team have successfully assisted organisations plan and execute acquisitions, mergers and buy in transactions.

Our financial due diligence team, tax due diligence team and the legal due diligence team adopt a robust full risk-based review methodology which enables us to flag out any potential risk exposures that exist which our client needs to consider.

Our financial, tax and legal due diligence covers both the buyers’ side and the sellers’ side. We also assist our clients in settling in from an accounting, reporting, tax and legal perspective once the transaction is concluded.

Besides ‘Tax’ legislation, companies have other legislation and regulations that provide how some processes and procedures should be carried out.

At SKM, with our proactive legal team, we can assist you with the following:

• Advice on legal form, incorporation, registration, reorganisation and winding .
• Secretarial services.
• Regulatory compliance review.
• Contract review and advice.

Tax and regulatory are very dynamic subjects. As such, Tax and the finance staff of all organisations need a refresh training at least once a year to bring them up to speed with changes in the tax and regulatory space that affect the organisation’s industry. This is one way organisations can increase compliance and cement tax planning.

SKM accredited tax trainers who are also certified tax trainers with Law Society of Kenya or/and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya deliver customized tax trainings to our clients.

Our trainings are differentiated by the following:

• We tailor our trainings to the specifics of our client needs.
• We are flexible and will train at the time and place convenient for our clients.
• We address the various tax issues in the context of the local and international economic circumstances affecting our clients.
• We provides reference training material.
• We offer Certificates of Participation to all the participants.
• We are accredited trainer with the Directorate of Industrial Training and as such registered participants with DITA can apply for reimbursements.