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Income tax filing phased from next January to ease last-minute congestion
The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning John Mbadi addressing the media on the Financial Year 2026/27 budget and the economic measures to support Kenyans at the National Treasury, Nairobi on May 25, 2026.
Income tax returns will be filed in phases starting January 1, 2027, in a strategy aimed at easing congestion, a shift from the present scenario where all taxpayers are obligated to do so by June 30 every year.
According to the Finance Act 2026, which was signed into law by President William Ruto on Tuesday, individuals will now be required to file their income tax returns by the last day of the fourth month following the end of their year of income, while every person other than individuals will be required to file their returns by the last day of the sixth month.
This means that individuals, who are defined as natural persons in the Income Tax Act, will now have April 30 as their deadline for filing their income tax returns, while corporates will do so by the June 30 deadline.
“Every individual, chargeable to tax under this Act, shall furnish the commissioner a return of income, including self-assessment of their tax from all sources of income, not later than the last day of the fourth month following the end of their year of income”, the Finance Act 2026 states in its amendment to Section 52B of the Income Tax Act.
“Every person, other than an individual chargeable to tax, shall for any accounting period furnish to the Commissioner a return of income, including a self-assessment of tax on such income not later than the last day of the sixth month following the end of the accounting period,” Finance Act 2026 further states.
Particularly on the radar for the new April 30th deadline will be Kenyans on Pay As You Earn (PAYE) who represent the segment that contributes the largest proportion of tax revenue collected in the country.
According to the National Treasury, the realignment of the Income Tax Return filing schedule is designed to ensure that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has ample time to cross-check the veracity of what individual taxpayers have filed.
The National Treasury argues that with KRA now pre-populating returns for taxpayers following the start of Incomes and expenses validation effective January 1st, 2026, a shorter filing timeline for individuals should be feasible since the data will already have been captured by the taxman.
“We are talking about filing returns for the previous financial year. The income tax that Kenyans are now filing returns on refers to the year of income ended December 31, 2025, which refers to what was earned until the end of December last year. So, we are saying that for individuals, you will have January, February, March and April to file. This will mean we don’t wait until towards June, and that’s when everybody is trying to file, and KRA has no time to check on the accuracy of what has been filed,” National Treasury CS, John Mbadi, says.
In the financial year 2024/25, which ended on June 30th, 2025, KRA was compelled to grant taxpayers an extension of the deadline for filing tax returns to July 5th after encountering system hitches that locked out many willing taxpayers from filing by the prescribed June 30th.
A section of analysts now opine that the phased-out filing provided for under the Finance Act 2026 should help KRA stave off the risk of recurring system-related challenges with all taxpayers chasing the June 30th deadline.
“This will help tier Kenya’s taxpayers and ease the administrative burden and system congestion that typically happens in June,” NCBA Group’s Economic Research desk states in a note to investors.
Kenya now joins jurisdictions such as South Africa, which rely on a phased income tax return filing schedule for their taxpayers.
