Bold Echo

  Why Filing Returns is a Must: What Every Kenyan Should Know About KRA Filing your KRA returns might sound like a complex or boring task, but in reality, it’s a powerful and necessary step toward becoming a responsible and empowered citizen of Kenya. Whether you’re employed, unemployed, a student, a hustler, or a business owner, filing your tax returns is not optionalit’s your duty . Let’s break it all down, no jargon, no stress—just facts, truth, and action. Ready?  What is KRA and What Are Tax Returns? KRA stands for the Kenya Revenue Authority , the body responsible for tax collection in Kenya. Every Kenyan adult with a KRA PIN is required to file annual tax returns—whether they made money or not! Tax returns are official declarations that show KRA how much you earned in the past year and how much tax (if any) you paid. If you didn't earn anything, you still need to file a Nil return .  What Happens If You Don’t File? Ksh 2,000 Penalty per year of non-c...

  THIS LIVING OF A HAND-TO-MOUTH LIFESTYLE   Have you ever paused for a moment and thought to yourself “I must be doing something wrong with my life, how comes I don’t have a single profitable investment running under my name despite working diligently for all those years?”   Yes, you have the zeal and willingness to invest… but somehow, things seem not to be going your way.   Maybe you even have a job, with a steady monthly salary and you do your best to save something at the end of the month but still somehow you have not been making any meaningful progress.   If you are in business, despite toiling and moiling all your life, you still can’t narrate any success stories worthy of a gossip blogger’s attention.   It’s a painful reality that most of us prefer not to talk about. It yields a sense of hopelessness and can easily make you wonder what your purpose in life is.   A hand-to-mouth kind of lifestyle is the biggest enemy o...

  With rapid urbanization taking place in most parts of Kenya, more and more people are switching to using LPG Gas for cooking. Cooking gas is cleaner and more convenient as compared to using charcoal or kerosene. That’s why the idea of starting an LPG retail business is not only a timely one; but also an environmentally conscious one.   Cooking gas business is a very profitable business in Kenya, in a good month you can get profits of between Ksh.90,000 and Ksh.180,000. What determines cooking gas retail business profits is your ability to retain customers and how you gain new customers.   Cooking gas in major towns is refilled at a wholesale price of Ksh.93 per kg, the wholesale price to refill a 6kgs gas cylinder is Ksh.558, the retail selling price of 6kgs gas cylinder is Ksh.900 to Ksh.1,000.   Refilling a 13kgs gas cylinder in wholesale costs Ksh.1,209, the retail price of 13kgs gas cylinder ranges between Ksh.1,800 to Ksh.2,000. That means you ca...

  Very often people underestimate the power of money that is within their grasp.   We find ourselves perpetually waiting for bigger amounts of money as that is what we feel is adequate to start saving or investing with.   We feel that it is only with these huge amounts that we can actually do something significant. And while we are waiting for these big amounts, we are usually recklessly spending small amounts of money every day without realizing their value or the alternative use of the money. Secondly, we are letting opportunities pass us by. I think sometimes the disease of instant gratification filters down to our saving or investment mentality.   We want to immediately be able to say we have Ksh.50,000 to put aside without realizing it is also small amounts over time that build up to Ksh.50,000.   Today, we explore the power of Ksh.5,000. You might be wondering where to get Ksh.5,000 given that your bank account is usually empty by the end o...

  Until 2 years ago, Grace Wangari worked as an accountant for a well-known company based in Nairobi. “I was convinced that my job was safe, I worked hard and all my superiors were happy with me, I was even on course to get a promotion soon,” she says. What she did not know was that things were about to take a drastic turn.   In 2019, she was laid off from work as a result of the biting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. “I was confused,” she says, “I did not know how to do anything else, accounting was my life,” she adds. Finding employment became as difficult as grasping a shadow, in her words, she was lost with no hope for the future, but was that really the case? One day as she was taking a walk, just to clear her mind, an idea hit her, an idea that would change her life, for the better, forever.   You see, Grace loves candles, scented ones to be exact; her house is full of them. She thought, why not turn my love for scented candles into a business? And t...

  How did that fool overtake me? That’s the question that lingers in the minds of most people when they turn 55.   They know very well that they studied hard, worked hard and lived a generally organized life. What they really can’t figure out is how that rugged looking, unschooled tout in the street managed to build an economy 100 times better than theirs.   How did that D- (Minus) material manage to own acres and acres of real estate? Or how did that mtumba seller manage to build a bungalow while I am still struggling to pay for a mortgaged two bedroom apartment?   Well, that’s the sad reality of life. Sometimes those from whom not much is expected are the ones who pull a couple of surprise moves in life.   This article brings this into perspective. It’s a life-journey comparison of two people. One is a matatu tout the other one is a banker.   One is in a blue-collar worker in a field that is otherwise reserved for those who seem unambi...