Businesses filing their 2025 income tax returns have received a temporary reprieve after the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) allowed taxpayers to declare legitimate business expenses that are not supported by eTIMS invoices.
In a public notice issued on Monday, June 8, KRA said taxpayers filing returns for the 2025 Year of Income will be allowed to upload valid expenses even where the supporting invoices were not generated through the electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS) or the older Tax Invoice Management System (TIMS).
The tax authority said the move is intended to facilitate smooth filing of returns ahead of the June 30 deadline.
“To facilitate smooth filing for the 2025 Year of Income, KRA has allowed taxpayers to declare valid business expenses that may not be supported by eTIMS/TIMS invoices. Such expenses may be uploaded during filing and will be subject to validation by KRA after submission,” the authority said.
The concession, however, will only apply to returns for the 2025 year of income.
KRA warned that beginning with the 2026 year of income, all declared income and expenses must be backed by electronic tax invoices generated and transmitted through eTIMS or TIMS.
“From the 2026 Year of Income onwards, all declared income and expenses must be supported by valid electronic tax invoices generated and transmitted through eTIMS/TIMS,” the authority stated.
This statement is giving room to organizations that are yet to embrace the electronic invoicing process as well as those whose expenditure records are not completely in line with what is required under eTIMS.
On the other hand, KRA informed taxpayers that the window for submission of annual tax returns is still open and that all returns are supposed to be filed by June 30, 2026.
Failure to file the tax returns within the specified period will mean penalties and enforcement under the provisions of the Tax Procedures Act.
In this regard, KRA pointed out that taxpayers who will not submit returns on time run the risk of being defaulted under section 29 of the Act. Those who file nil returns but fail to do so within the specified period also face the risk of being penalized with Ksh2,000.
This is another effort by KRA towards digitization of tax services using eTIMS platform among others.
To support taxpayers during the filing season, the authority recently rolled out Shuru, a WhatsApp-based platform designed to help users verify tax obligations and file returns more easily before the June 30 deadline.
