Preparing the monthly P10 return in Kenya

How a Kenyan employer gets from an approved pay run to a filed and paid P10 on iTax by the 9th, and records both so a second person can confirm them.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya

Salaries go out at the end of the month and everyone relaxes. Then the 9th arrives. By that date, a Kenyan employer has to file the P10 return on iTax and pay the PAYE it deducted, and the work between payday and the deadline is easy to underestimate: figures to finalise, a template to fill in, a payment slip to generate, a payment to make and a record to keep.

This article follows one month's P10 from the approved pay run to the confirmed payment, and shows where Achekam does the work and where a person has to.

What the P10 is for, and what it is not

The P10 is the employer's monthly PAYE return on iTax. It reports the PAYE deducted from each employee for the month.

Not every deduction on a Kenyan payslip goes to KRA. KRA collects PAYE and the Affordable Housing Levy. It does not collect SHIF, which goes to the Social Health Authority, NSSF contributions, which go to the NSSF, or the NITA levy. Those have their own returns, channels and dates. Keep the P10 for what KRA collects, and keep separate routines for the rest. The full split is set out in Kenyan payroll deductions and who collects them.

The Housing Levy has its own clock: KRA collects it within 9 working days after the month end. That is close to the PAYE date but not the same rule, so check both every month rather than assuming they coincide.

Filed and paid by the 9th

Kenyan PAYE is filed on the P10 and paid by the 9th of the following month. The September payroll's PAYE is filed and paid by 9 October; December's by 9 January.

Both halves matter. A return filed on time with the payment made late is still late, and so is a payment made on time against a return filed afterwards. KRA's PAYE page sets out what counts as taxable employment income, the monthly bands and reliefs, the deadline on the 9th, how to pay with an iTax payment slip at a bank or through M-Pesa paybill 222222, and the penalties for paying late.

The schedule Achekam prepares from approved runs

Achekam runs Kenyan payroll with PAYE, the Affordable Housing Levy, SHIF, NSSF Tier I and II and the NITA levy. From approved pay runs, it prepares the P10 schedule, the SHIF, NSSF and NITA schedules, and each employee's P9A for the year.

The figures come only from approved runs. A pay run is approved by someone other than the person who prepared it, nobody can approve a run that pays themselves, and an approved run is never recalculated. A schedule, in turn, is finalised by someone other than its preparer. By the time you have a P10 schedule in hand, two people have already looked at the numbers behind it.

When the run is approved, each contribution posts to its own liability account, for example PAYE and Housing Levy Payable (KRA). That account is what you will clear when the payment goes out.

Moving the figures into KRA's own template

Here is the step that most often goes wrong. Achekam's Kenyan payroll schedules download as Achekam's own CSV layout and as a PDF. They do not download in KRA's upload template. Someone has to move the figures from Achekam's schedule into the P10 template that iTax accepts.

Treat that transfer as a control point:

1. Download the finalised P10 schedule from Achekam.
2. Copy each employee's figures into KRA's template, keeping the same order.
3. Total the template and compare it with the schedule's totals for pay and PAYE.
4. Ask a colleague to compare a handful of employees line by line.
5. Only then upload the template on iTax and file.

Keep the downloaded schedule and the completed template together. If a figure is ever questioned, you can show where it came from.

Paying with a PRN

After filing, generate the payment slip on iTax. It carries a Payment Registration Number. Pay at a bank, or by M-Pesa to government paybill 222222 with the PRN as the account number. Paybill 572572 is discontinued. Mobile money has been limited to KES 250,000 per PRN since November 2023; check KRA's current guidance before relying on that limit for a large payroll.

Recording the filing and the payment

Achekam does not file or pay Kenyan payroll returns. A person records the filing made on iTax with the reference iTax gave, and a second person confirms each payment.

For the payment, Achekam records KRA's own reference and receipt: the PRN and the bank receipt or M-Pesa confirmation. It never generates a payment reference itself and refuses a payment recorded against paybill 572572. The confirmer checks three things against each other: the PRN on the iTax slip, the PRN and amount on the receipt, and what was entered in Achekam.

A P10 timeline for the month

Leave margin. A public holiday or a slow iTax session close to the 9th is a poor excuse to have to offer. What lateness costs on each payroll remittance is covered in late SHIF, Housing Levy and payroll remittances.

Twelve P10s make a year

Each month's P10 also feeds the year-end. The P9A you give each employee should agree with the twelve P10s you filed for them. If you keep every month's schedule, template and acknowledgement in one place, that year-end check becomes a matter of adding up. See giving Kenyan staff their P9A.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.