Development of a Property Tax Information Management System for County Governments: A Case Study of Kapsabet Sub-county

Abstract

Complete and reliable information is important for planning and decision making. Various challenges face Kapsabet sub-county revenue sector in regard to property tax rates and single business permit fee collection and management. The main challenges include lack of full information on the property owners, poor record keeping and the outdated spatial data. There is no link between the location of a property and its corresponding data, rendering all forms of spatial analysis impossible. The main objective of the study was to address this problem by developing a web-based property tax information management system that provides an effective tax collection and management. Open source GIS software was employed to develop the system. The system developed is composed of three sub-components: a database management system, a webbased

mapping display and a short message service system. The database is centralized and contains tools for data updating and visualization while the web-based hosts the map visualization. The short message service (SMS) provides information on taxes arrears. Information on land parcels, buildings, building units, land rates and single business permit fees was incorporated in the resulting system. The system has provided an interactive link between real property and office records. The database results are various maps and list of coordinates for the tax defaulters. Maps depicts land use, unregistered properties, taxed and nontaxed properties. List of coordinates enable tracing of tax defaulters through handheld GPS. The SMS has provided a convenient way of reminding the property owners on the payment of taxes through their mobile phones. This system may be used by property owners in the diaspora to access information on their property through the web.