What Changed in 2026: KRA Started Checking Your Numbers

Part 1 of 2. Part 2 covers what changes for your 2027 return and what to do now.

KRA no longer waits for you to tell it what you earned. In 2026 it started checking every return against its own records: eTIMS invoices, withholding tax and customs data. It sent people pre-filled returns showing what it thinks they earned, and rejected claims it couldn't match.

For a freelance photographer, editor, musician or designer, that changed the job. Filing is getting easier. Proving your numbers is getting harder. The person with a clean record of every job, receipt and WHT certificate wins. The person reconstructing a year from M-Pesa messages in June loses, sometimes by thousands of shillings.

The news came out in pieces over most of the year. This part puts the 2026 season in order and explains why it matters for creative workers.

The season KRA started checking

The 2025 returns, filed between January and June 2026, were the first where KRA checked your numbers before accepting them. Income was matched against eTIMS invoices, withholding tax and customs data. Expenses needed an eTIMS invoice with your PIN on it.

10 Nov 2025

KRA announced validation of income and expenses from 1 January 2026. Declared income would be checked against eTIMS, WHT and customs records, and expenses would need a valid eTIMS invoice.

Jan 2026

After pushback, KRA allowed a one-time window for genuine expenses without eTIMS invoices. You could still claim them by uploading the documents and a schedule with each supplier's PIN, subject to KRA review.

Feb 2026

KRA said 392,162 taxpayers filed nil 2024 returns despite showing income, and sent SMS alerts. Many were freelancers who thought the 5% WHT was their final tax. It isn't.

Mar to Apr 2026

Pre-populated 2025 returns appeared on iTax, and automated checks on nil returns began. KRA showed you what it thinks you earned. Disagreeing meant proving it.

Jun 2026

Returns were rejected because non-eTIMS invoices weren't uploaded first. The records existed, but not in the form KRA's system needed.

KRA's Commissioner George Obell was blunt about people who ignore their pre-populated figures. Not engaging, he said, will be "an invitation to look not just at 2025 but also preceding years."

From the 2026 year of income, KRA says "all declared income and expenses must be supported by valid electronic tax invoices."

The non-eTIMS window was a one-off. Only the narrow exemptions in Section 23A of the Tax Procedures Act remain.

Why this matters if you're a creative

Filing is getting simpler. Being right is getting harder. Creative work sits exactly where KRA's new system is sharpest.

KRA sees your income, but not your costs. When a production company, agency or broadcaster pays you, it deducts 5% withholding tax and reports it. That report lands in your pre-filled return as income. Your camera hire, studio time, transport and data bundles only show up if the seller issued an eTIMS invoice with your PIN on it. So KRA's starting picture of you is all income and few expenses: the most expensive version of you.

WHT is not your final tax. The 5% is a down payment. Your actual tax is worked out on the whole year, and the 5% is credited against it, but only if you have the certificate. Hundreds of thousands of people learned this the hard way in 2026.

Your records are your only argument. KRA takes the higher figure for income and the lower one for expenses. To move either number, you need the invoice, the receipt, the certificate and the date.

The practical upshot: the work that decides your tax happens between January and December, not in the week before the deadline.

Coming in Part 2

The Finance Act 2026 changes the rules again for the return you file in 2027: a possible deadline two months earlier, pre-filled returns written into law, web-based filing replacing Excel, and a tax amnesty that ends on 31 December 2026. Part 2 covers who files when, and a checklist for the three months left in this tax year.

This is general information, not tax advice. If your situation is complicated, speak to a certified accountant.

Sources

• KRA, Validation of Income and Expenses in the Income Tax Returns, 10 Nov 2025
• Khusoko, One-time window for non-eTIMS expenses, 8 Jun 2026
• Kenyans.co.ke, Common mistake behind rejected 2025 returns, 17 Jun 2026
• Techweez, KRA reinstates nil returns with automated verification, 9 Feb 2026
• Kenya Insights, KRA crackdown on nil filers with income, 20 Feb 2026