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The KRA PIN in Kenya

The short answer

The PIN identifies your business across every tax system and identifies your customer on an invoice they intend to claim, and the common failure is losing access to it rather than losing the number.

What the rules say

Practical guidance

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.

Source: Kenya Revenue Authority
Practical guidance

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.

Source: Kenya Revenue Authority

What we are not stating here. Some of the specific requirements relating to this topic have not yet been verified against their primary source by our reviewer, so they are withheld from this page rather than stated from memory. That means you will not find a threshold, rate, deadline or penalty figure below. For those, check KRA directly. Everything else on this page explains how the mechanism works and is not affected.

One identifier, two roles

A PIN identifies your business in every tax system. It also identifies your customer on an invoice they intend to claim. Those are different jobs and businesses regularly do the first well and the second badly, because the second one happens at the counter under time pressure.

Keeping access to it

The practical failure is not losing the PIN, it is losing access to it: the registered phone number belongs to a former employee, or the email is one nobody checks. This becomes urgent at exactly the moment it is hardest to fix. Check it while nothing depends on it.

Common questions

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 questions

Sources

  1. officialKenya Revenue Authority — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
  2. officialTax Procedures Act, 2015 (Act No. 29 of 2015) — National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law), checked 2026-09-18
  3. officialIncome Tax Act (Cap. 470) — National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law), checked 2026-09-18
  4. officialeTIMS taxpayer portal — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
  5. officialiTax portal — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
  6. officialeTIMS (Electronic Tax Invoice Management System) — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
  7. officialValue Added Tax Act, 2013 (Act No. 35 of 2013) — National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law), checked 2026-09-18

Keeping the records this needs

Most of the difficulty here is operational rather than legal: knowing what you sold, to whom, and having the document to show it. Veira is a Kenyan product that does that part.

See how Veira handles itAsk about setting this up

Veira is the product this site is published by. We say so on every page that mentions it rather than presenting it as a neutral recommendation.

Published 2026-09-25 · Updated 2026-09-25 · Compiled by etims.online editorial team · 2 requirements withheld pending verification