first in europe the person living in the house is the one who pays local authority tax not the landlord, which in turn provides services such as bins collection and sewage so if you live in rural areas where services are not provided you pay nothing or something small.
- second property investment requires expensive capital which qualifies for grace period as industries.
-third there is shortage of houses in kenya and we should encaurage investment to meet demand
-goverment should live within its mean and anything above should be for investment purpose only
-taxing should be graded, i mean tax 100k-200k at 10% and 200-500 at 20% as there is no point of taxing someone earning 10k with four mouths to feed

Better still,your landlord's can go to europe and build their houses there.

But if you own the house as an individual and you rent ot out, according to the income tax act the rent amount is equal to income and is lumpsumped (if there is such a word)into your other earnings and tax using the graduated formula. That is why if is above the threashold of Kshs. 38,... then it is taxed at 30%

@African Coloner,
I think there is something wrong with your postulation. Why are you confusing rental income and service charge? There used to be "service charge" in Payslips till 1999 when LATF was conceived. Which means local authorities get 5% of national income [Ksh 4.2B for Nairobi in 12/13 FY] to provide the requisite services within their jurisdiction. [Don't forget local authorities also collect lots of money directly (KSh 10.6B for Nairobi)]

It is important you appreciate the taxation rationale.

If you invested in a company, the company is taxed corporate tax (I think 30%) and you the shareholder if you any divined you are also taxed.

Landlords cannot complain.

Shortage of houses is a non-issue. There is shortage of food around... does it mean we don't tax farmers [or restaurants]

GoK is just attempting to extend its means [and services also] rather than living within them. Next it will be those in the informal sector. In the end, Kenyans will see tax as a religious obligation (akin to tithe) and comply. The development you see in Europe is [was] funded by taxes the citizens of those countries paid to their government.

Off-course, we still have to push GoK to put our taxes to good use.

I can see broke landlords all over the forum . .
Who are refusing to pay taxes.

You deduct your expenses before you get an income

give us your email incase we invest then we can know how to go about it