On the VAT Special Table: what it means
What happens when KRA places a Kenyan business on the VAT Special Table, why customers lose their input tax, and how to work towards removal.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
The first sign is usually not a letter from KRA. It is a customer on the phone, annoyed, saying their VAT return has rejected your invoices. Or it is your own bookkeeper reporting that iTax will not let them file this month's VAT return at all. Somewhere along the line, your PIN has been placed on what KRA calls the VAT Special Table.
Being on the Special Table changes how KRA's systems treat your business, and it reaches beyond you to the people who buy from you. The good news is that it is not permanent. This article explains who ends up there, what it does, and how to get off it.
Who ends up on the table
KRA describes the VAT Special Table as a list for three kinds of taxpayer: nil filers, non-filers and suspected missing traders.
Each category has an innocent version and a less innocent one. A business that filed nil returns for months while it was genuinely dormant, or that missed several returns during a crisis, can land in the same place as one KRA suspects of issuing invoices without trading. KRA's systems cannot tell the difference at first; that is what the removal process is for. If you have filed a run of nil returns, the cautions in Kenyan nil returns are worth reading.
Blocked returns and no penalty for those periods
KRA says a taxpayer placed on the Special Table is blocked from filing VAT returns. It also says no penalty is charged for the returns the taxpayer could not file as a result.
That second point matters. A business that cannot file because of the block is not building up late filing penalties for those periods. But do not mistake that for a reason to wait. While you are blocked, your VAT position is frozen in an unresolved state, and the consequences below keep running.
Your customers lose their input tax
This is the effect that hurts relationships. KRA says traders cannot claim input tax on purchases from a taxpayer on the VAT Special Table, and iTax rejects such entries with the message "This PIN is not liable to input tax deduction".
Think about it from your customer's side. They paid VAT on your invoice, expecting to claim it back. Their return refuses the claim, so that VAT becomes a cost to them. A customer who sees that message more than once may start looking for another supplier. Accountants who deal with this from the buyer's end will find the detail in client purchases from Special Table suppliers.
The tax compliance certificate consequence
The Special Table also stands between you and a tax compliance certificate. KRA says non-individual entities, and individuals with income other than employment income, must meet the eTIMS or TIMS requirements, and be VAT compliant including their VAT Special Table status, to get a Tax Compliance Certificate. More generally, KRA requires all returns filed and taxes paid on or before their due dates, and outstanding tax debt cleared or covered by an approved payment plan.
For a business that bids for tenders or renews licences, that is often the most urgent consequence. Without the certificate, the opportunity can be lost while the Special Table issue is being sorted out. The certificate is covered in Kenya's tax compliance certificate.
Getting removed through your Tax Service Office
KRA's instruction is direct: the taxpayer must contact its Tax Service Office for guidance on removal from the Special Table. KRA's more about VAT questions and answers describe the Special Table, the effect on returns and on customers' input tax, and the referral to the Tax Service Office.
Go prepared. The office will want to understand why you were placed there, and the strongest answer is evidence:
- A list of every VAT period, with whether a return was filed, when, and its acknowledgement.
- Payment records for each period, with KRA's references.
- Proof that the business is trading: invoices, contracts, bank statements, premises.
- For nil returns, an explanation of why the business had no taxable supplies in those periods.
- A named contact who can answer follow-up questions quickly.
Using Achekam to show your filing and payment history
The evidence for the Tax Service Office is easier to assemble when filings and payments have been recorded consistently all along. Achekam does not file Kenyan returns: a person with the business's KRA filing permission files on iTax and uploads the acknowledgement, and a different person verifies it before the return counts as filed. Payments are recorded with KRA's own reference and receipt, the PRN, and need a second person's confirmation. Over time, that gives you a verified history of what was filed and paid, period by period, to put in front of KRA.
Achekam also checks its own records for what would stand in the way of a tax clearance certificate. It never claims KRA will issue one, and it takes the expiry from the certificate itself. Where a certificate states no expiry, Achekam shows KRA's 12-month practice, labelled as such. Because the check looks at Achekam's own records, treat it as a view of your side of the story rather than KRA's verdict on your status.
Its filing calendar shows Kenyan deadlines set to the end of the day in Africa/Nairobi, and leaves out any deadline whose rule is awaiting approval or contested, saying why. If KRA follows up removal with an assessment, Achekam computes the objection and appeal deadlines from the approved administration rule.
Book the visit to your Tax Service Office this week, and take the period-by-period list with you. The sooner you are off the table, the sooner your customers can claim their input tax again.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
