The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has declined to extend the deadline for filing annual tax returns despite complaints from a section of taxpayers that they were unable to log into the taxman’s online filing platform, iTax.
In a public notice, KRA asked Kenyans to file their annual tax returns before midnight on June 30, 2026, to avoid penalties for late filing.
“All PIN holders with an Income Tax Obligation who are yet to file their 2025 Income Tax Returns are reminded to do so immediately and avoid the last-minute rush before the filing deadline of midnight, Tuesday, June 30, 2026,” KRA said in a public notice published on Monday.
“No extension of the filing deadline will be granted. Taxpayers who fail to file their 2025 Income Tax Returns by the due date will be liable to the applicable penalties and may be subject to default assessments in accordance with the law,” it added.
Several taxpayers said they struggled to submit their mandatory annual income tax returns through the iTax system ahead of the June 30 deadline. KRA officials attributed the problem to increased traffic on the platform.
Some taxpayers encountered broken links and error messages when attempting to access the portal, leaving many frustrated and fearing they would miss the statutory deadline. Under Kenyan law, taxpayers who fail to file their annual returns by June 30 risk late-filing penalties and, in some cases, default tax assessments by KRA.
The congestion is not new. Since iTax was rolled out in 2013, the electronic platform has routinely experienced heavy traffic in the final days of the filing season as millions of taxpayers wait until the last minute to comply.
Experts say KRA needs to upgrade its system rather than continue mounting public awareness campaigns urging taxpayers to file early.
Robert Waruiru, the managing partner and head of tax at Ichiban Tax & Business Advisory LLP, reckons that the Finance Act, 2026, partly tried to address this problem by staggering the tax return filing periods so that all A PIN holders, that is one for individuals, file by April 30, while all P PIN holders, comprising non-individual taxpayers, file by June 30.
“Whilst this may help, if one considers the PIN registration profile, I think we will likely still have a problem. Of the 22.3 million registered PINs, assuming only 20 percent are P PINs, it means we will still have heavy traffic in April next year,” said Waruiru.
“The long-term solution is a major upgrade of iTax, which, as you know, is about 11 years old,” added the tax expert.
KRA listed three other channels through which taxpayers can file their returns besides iTax. They include WhatsApp, eCitizen and a USSD code.
Social media platforms were awash with complaints from frustrated taxpayers. Some posted screenshots showing they could not access the portal, while others said the system repeatedly timed out or failed to load after they entered their credentials.
Others appealed to KRA to extend the filing deadline, arguing that the outage was beyond their control.
Kenya requires every holder of a KRA PIN with an income tax obligation—including those with no taxable income—to file an annual return. The country has millions of registered taxpayers, making the June filing deadline one of KRA’s busiest compliance periods each year.
Previous attempts to abolish mandatory annual returns for certain taxpayers have been shelved after the tax authority argued that the requirement remains a critical compliance and data collection tool.
