Kenyan corporation tax: rate and return date
The corporation tax a Kenyan company pays, when the return is due, what happened to the minimum tax, and what Achekam computes once its rules are approved.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
Launching soon. Some of the screens this article describes for Nigerian and Kenyan businesses are not reachable in Achekam yet. They are coming soon.
For a Kenyan company, corporation tax is the big annual number. It is worked out on the year's taxable profit, paid partly in advance through instalments, and settled with a return on iTax. Getting the rate, the dates and the paperwork right is mostly a matter of knowing which rules apply to your company and keeping the calendar.
This article sets out the rate for ordinary companies, the special regimes, the return deadline, what happened to the minimum tax, and how Achekam fits around a return that a person still files on iTax.
Resident companies and branches
Kenyan resident companies pay corporation tax at 30%. Non-resident companies with a permanent establishment in Kenya, such as a branch, pay at the same rate on the profits of that establishment.
The rate is applied to taxable profit, which starts from the accounting profit and is adjusted for items the tax law treats differently: disallowed expenses, capital allowances instead of depreciation, and so on. That computation is your tax adviser's work, from your annual financial statements.
Special regimes
Some companies are taxed under special regimes rather than at the standard rate, for example companies in export processing zones and special economic zones, and NIFC companies. If your company may fall into one of these, confirm its status and the rules that apply with your tax adviser before the year's computation, because the regime affects instalments as well as the final return.
The return within six months of the year end
A Kenyan corporation tax return is due within 6 months after the year end. Companies use their own 12-month financial year; the calendar year is the individual tax year, and the government's financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. Your company's deadline therefore runs from its own year end.
KRA explains how companies and partnerships file and pay PAYE, corporation tax and instalment tax on iTax in its guide to filing and paying taxes, including the IT2C return due six months after year-end, nil returns and payment slips.
Most of the tax is not paid with the return. Kenyan instalment tax is due on the 20th day of the 4th, 6th, 9th and 12th months of the year, based on the lower of 110% of the previous year's tax or the year's estimate. The return then settles the balance. Kenyan instalment tax explains how to estimate and pay the instalments.
The minimum tax the courts struck down
Kenya's 1% minimum tax was struck down by the High Court in September 2021, and by the Court of Appeal in December 2022. Whether it has since been revived is uncertain, so ask your tax adviser before assuming either way, and check KRA's current guidance.
What to hand your tax adviser
The computation is only as good as what goes into it. Before the adviser starts, put together:
- the final trial balance and the annual financial statements;
- the fixed-asset list with the year's additions and disposals. If you keep a fixed-asset register in Achekam, note that it works out accounting depreciation only; tax wear-and-tear is not worked out, so the adviser computes capital allowances separately;
- proof of each instalment paid during the year, with its payment reference;
- withholding tax certificates received from customers;
- evidence that expenses are backed by eTIMS invoices. Since 1 January 2024, Kenyan business expenses not supported by an eTIMS invoice are disallowed for income tax, so an expense without one may be added back.
The last point is where many small companies lose money. Check the year's larger supplier invoices for eTIMS references before the books are closed, not after the return is drafted.
What Achekam computes once rules are approved
Achekam holds a rule book of Kenyan tax figures. Every Kenyan figure in it was seeded "under review", and Achekam computes nothing from a figure until an Achekam platform administrator approves it. No user at a business or firm can change a rate.
Once its rules are approved, Achekam computes Kenyan corporation tax, instalment tax, VAT, withholding tax, turnover tax, capital gains tax and stamp duty. Extractive, petroleum and non-resident digital profiles are refused as needing an assessment by a specialist.
Two more points about dates. Kenyan rules whose start date the research did not find begin on 1 January 2026 in Achekam, so earlier Kenyan periods are refused rather than computed. A year that started before that date will need its computation done outside Achekam.
Filing on iTax yourself
Achekam does not file Kenyan returns. A person with the KRA filing permission files the return on iTax and uploads the acknowledgement, and a different person verifies it before the return counts as filed in Achekam. No role receives the Kenyan filing permission by default; it is granted to named people only.
That two-person step is useful in its own right. The person who files is not the person who confirms the filing happened, so a return marked filed really was. How the filing is recorded and verified, for Kenyan and Nigerian returns alike, is set out in recording returns filed on Rev360 or iTax.
A checklist for the year:
- Year end noted, and the return deadline six months later in the calendar.
- Instalment dates in the 4th, 6th, 9th and 12th months, with estimates reviewed before each.
- Special regime status, if any, confirmed with your tax adviser.
- Annual financial statements finalised in time for the computation.
- Named person with filing permission; a second person to verify.
- Return filed on iTax, acknowledgement uploaded, verification recorded.
Plan the year
Write your company's year end, the four instalment dates and the return deadline into one calendar today. The different Kenyan years, and why a company's year need not match the calendar, are explained in Kenya's tax years explained.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
