KRA Deadline Calendar
The filing dates that apply through the year, in one place. Check what's coming up and what applies to your business.
Filter by the obligations that apply to you. Dates shown are the standard filing deadlines currently in force. Free, and no sign-up.
- Monthlythe 9th of the following month
PAYE
Every employer
A nil return is still a return. Rule 10(2) requires a certificate even in a month when no tax was deducted.
- Monthlythe 9th of the month
SHIF contributions
Every employer, deducting from each employee
- Monthlythe 9th of the following month
- Monthlythe 9th WORKING day after the end of the month
Affordable Housing Levy
Every employer, and anyone with income not subject to the levy through payroll
Working days, not calendar days — so this is usually later than the 9th, and it moves with public holidays. Late payment carries a penalty of 3% of the unpaid amount for each month it stays unpaid.
- Monthlythe 20th of the following month
VAT return and payment
VAT-registered businesses
A nil return is still due in a month with no taxable supplies.
- Per paymentwithin 5 working days of making the deduction
Withholding tax
Anyone required to withhold tax from a payment
This runs from each deduction, not from the end of the month — so a payment made early in a month is due well before that month ends. A certificate must go to the payee in the same five days.
- Monthlythe 20th of the following month
Turnover tax
Businesses within the turnover tax bands, where it applies instead of ordinary income tax
- Quarterlythe 20th of the 4th, 6th, 9th and 12th months of the accounting period
Instalment tax
Companies and other taxpayers above the instalment tax threshold
Businesses deriving more than two thirds of their income from agriculture, pasture or horticulture pay in the 9th and 12th months only.
- Annualthe last day of the 4th month after the accounting period ends
Corporation tax — balance of tax
Companies
Two months before the return itself is due. Paying and filing are separate dates, and this is the earlier one.
- Annualthe last day of the 6th month after the accounting period ends
Corporation tax — annual return
Companies and every taxpayer other than an individual
Separate from the annual return to the Business Registration Service, which is a company-law filing with a different registry and its own date.
- Annual30 April, for the previous calendar year
Individual income tax return
Individuals with a KRA PIN, including those with only employment income
This moved. It was 30 June; the Finance Act 2026 makes it the last day of the fourth month, with effect from 1 January 2027 — so the return for the 2026 year of income is due 30 April 2027, two months earlier than the previous deadline. A nil return is still due if you hold a PIN.
Dates last reviewed . Deadlines can change, and public holidays can move them. Confirm the current date with KRA or with us before relying on it.
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These tools give estimates and general information. They are not tax, accounting or legal advice, and they don’t account for the specifics of your business. Always confirm what applies to your situation before acting on a result.
This calendar covers common filing obligations. It isn't a complete list of every requirement, and it doesn't confirm which apply to your business.
What this page covers, and what it does not
This page is about which filings a Kenyan business owes and who they apply to. The dates themselves are published separately, above, and only once each one has been checked against KRA and signed off — see the note with the calendar.
That split is deliberate. An obligation you did not know you had is a problem you can fix in a conversation. A due date that is wrong is a penalty, and it is worse coming from an accountant's website than from nowhere at all.
Obligations differ by business. Not everything below applies to you, and registering for something that does not apply is a common and expensive mistake in the other direction. If you are not certain which of these are yours, ask us — it is a short conversation.
The monthly cycle
Most businesses have two kinds of monthly filing, and they are not on the same schedule as each other.
Payroll filings follow the payroll month: PAYE on what you deducted from your employees, SHIF and NSSF contributions, and the Affordable Housing Levy. If you employ anybody, you have all four, every month, whether or not the business made money.
Transaction filings follow what the business bought and sold: VAT if you are registered, withholding tax on payments where you were required to withhold, turnover tax where it applies instead of VAT, and excise duty on excisable goods and services.
Rent income tax is also a monthly obligation for landlords, and digital service tax applies to some online businesses. Both have their own rules.
The annual layer
Instalment tax is paid across the year by companies above the threshold, against the tax the year is expected to produce — it is not an extra tax, it is the same tax paid earlier. The corporation tax balance and the annual return follow the company's own financial year end, which means two companies can have entirely different deadlines for the same filing.
Individual income tax returns run on the calendar year, separately from anything the company owes.
The two that catch people out
Nil returns still have to be filed. A month with no VAT to pay is still a month with a VAT return due. Filing nothing is not the same as filing nil, and the penalty is the same either way. This is the single most common thing we clean up in new client work.
Annual returns to the Business Registration Service are not a KRA obligation. They sit with a different registry, on a different schedule, and nobody sends a reminder. A company that files nothing because it is dormant still has obligations — penalties accrue against a PIN whether or not the business traded.
What to do with this
Work out which of these are actually yours, then put each one in a recurring calendar entry with a name against it. An obligation that belongs to everybody belongs to nobody, and that is how filings get missed in businesses that are otherwise well run.
Then decide whether tracking them is a good use of your month. Our clients do not watch these dates — we run the compliance calendar, file the returns, and reconcile them to the books, because a return that does not agree with your accounts is a future assessment waiting to happen.
Want help making sense of the result?
Talk to Cerullo about your business and we’ll help you understand what to do next.