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Stanbic Bank Limitd v Kenya Revenue Authority (CA Civil Appeal No. 77 of 2008 [2009] eKLR,

As regards tax law the issue of intention or intendment does not rise, if there is any ambiguity, the same must be construed in favour of the tax payer.

“In my interpretation of the law, it is quite evident that I have not sought any assistance from outside a dictionary in ordinary use. Moreover, I have not strained the meaning of words in order to achieve any particular result. I have simply adopted the ordinary meaning of the words used in the relevant tax statute. This is because as regards tax law the issue of intention or intendment does not rise, if there is any ambiguity, and I did not detect in my analysis, the same must be construed in favour of the tax payer. In tax law, the converse is also true that if the meaning is clear, that tax is chargeable, the issue of what was intended is not the function of the court and where tax liability is expressed and located by law courts must uphold the taxman’s position.”

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