Unemployment: tax incentives as a means of curbing youth unemployment in Kenya

Abstract

Many existing resources show the importance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in an economy. This study analyses the legislative framework of SMEs and their taxation in Kenya. SMEs are a great source of employment for people in a country and this, in turn, leads to the economic growth of the country and alleviating poverty. This is because they employ many people, especially the youth as most of them cannot secure jobs in the formal sector. SMEs are mostly categorised under the informal sector due to their size, their form of ownership, and the type of economic activity that they undertake. However, they do not perform well financially due to the numerous taxes imposed on them and this has led to most of them shutting down as they do not have an enabling environment for them to survive.