The short answer
Usually not a fault in eTIMS but an access problem: the phone number or email registered against the PIN belongs to someone who has left the business.
What this usually means
Our reading, not a rule. Nothing below is a statement of what KRA requires.
A sign-in failure is usually an access problem rather than a system problem, and in Kenyan small businesses it has a specific and very common shape: the person who originally set the account up has left, and the phone number or email registered against the PIN went with them.
What to suspect first
Our reading, not a rule. Nothing below is a statement of what KRA requires.
- The registered phone number or email belongs to a former employee, an old accountant or a relative who helped once
- Nobody currently at the business has ever signed in, so the credentials were never really in the business's hands
- The wrong PIN: a personal PIN used where the business PIN is needed, or the reverse
- A verification code going to a number nobody has access to, which is the same problem wearing a different hat
What you can check yourself
Our reading, not a rule. Nothing below is a statement of what KRA requires.
- Establish which PIN you are signing in with, and whether it is the one the business trades under.
- Find out whose phone number and email are registered against that PIN. This is the question that resolves most of these.
- Check whether anyone at the business can sign in to iTax with the same PIN, which separates an eTIMS problem from an access problem.
- If a verification code is being sent somewhere you cannot reach, treat fixing the registered contact details as the actual task. Everything else is blocked behind it.
When to stop and contact KRA. Recovering access to a PIN whose registered contact details you no longer control is a KRA process, not something a software change fixes. Start it early: it takes longer than people expect and everything else waits on it.
What the rules say
Stated by the publisher from the cited KRA material. Our reviewer has not yet re-checked it against the source, so confirm anything you are about to act on with KRA directly.
KRA states that taxpayers can onboard themselves, and that registration comes before installing an eTIMS solution rather than after it.
Tax rules in Kenya change with each Finance Act and with regulations made during the year. Before acting on any figure, deadline or threshold, check the current position on KRA's own website.
This page explains how a requirement generally works. It is not tax advice, and it cannot account for the specifics of any one business. For a position you intend to rely on, confirm with KRA directly or with a registered tax agent.
Common questions
Why can I not log in to eTIMS?
Usually not a fault in eTIMS but an access problem: the phone number or email registered against the PIN belongs to someone who has left the business.
What should I check first when cannot sign in to etims?
Establish which PIN you are signing in with, and whether it is the one the business trades under.
Can you tell me the exact steps to fix it?
Not for anything inside KRA's own software, no. We do not publish click-paths through screens we have not seen documented, because a confident wrong instruction sends you to fix the wrong thing while you are already stuck. What we can do is narrow the cause and tell you when to contact KRA.
How do I know this information is current?
Tax rules in Kenya change with each Finance Act and with regulations made during the year. Before acting on any figure, deadline or threshold, check the current position on KRA's own website.
Related problems
Sources
- officialiTax portal — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
- officialeTIMS taxpayer portal — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
- officialeTIMS (Electronic Tax Invoice Management System) — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
- officialKenya Revenue Authority — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18