Checking a Kenyan supplier's PIN and tax compliance
How a Kenyan business checks a supplier's KRA PIN and tax compliance certificate before contracting or paying, and keeps the evidence in Achekam.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
A new supplier quotes well, delivers on time and sends a neat invoice with a KRA PIN on it. Six months later your tax adviser finds the PIN belongs to someone else, or that the supplier stopped filing returns a year ago. The goods were real; the paperwork that supports your expense was not.
Checking a supplier's tax standing in Kenya takes a few minutes, and KRA provides the tools for free. This article explains which checks to run, what Achekam's own check does and does not prove, where to keep the evidence, and when to check again.
Why supplier checks matter
Three practical reasons, all of them about your own position rather than the supplier's:
- Your expenses. KRA increasingly matches what businesses declare against eTIMS and other data. A purchase from a supplier with a false PIN, or without a valid eTIMS invoice, is an expense you may struggle to defend. Achekam lists a Kenyan business's supplier invoices that have no eTIMS reference recorded, so you can see which expenses are at risk; Kenyan expenses at risk without eTIMS covers that list.
- Tenders and contracts. Clients, especially public bodies, often require that your own subcontractors and suppliers are tax compliant.
- Fraud. A false PIN is a common sign of a supplier that is not what it claims to be.
KRA's PIN and certificate checkers
KRA's online services include a PIN checker and a tax compliance certificate checker. Its list of online services sets them out, together with PIN registration, the withholding certificate checker, the M-Service app and returns filing.
Run two checks on every new supplier:
- PIN checker: confirm the PIN exists and belongs to the business named on the supplier's documents.
- Tax compliance certificate checker: confirm the certificate the supplier gave you is genuine and current.
A Kenyan tax compliance certificate is valid for the period stated on it, which in KRA practice is 12 months. Read the expiry date from the certificate itself, not from the supplier's covering letter.
Take a screenshot or save the result of each check, with the date. That record is your evidence that you checked.
What Achekam's shape check does not prove
When you enter a KRA PIN in Achekam, it checks only the PIN's shape, a letter, nine digits and a letter, and only as a soft check. A PIN of the right shape can still be invented, mistyped by one digit, or belong to a different taxpayer. Achekam does not check BRS company numbers at all.
So the shape check catches obvious typing errors; it is not a verification. The user confirms the PIN on iTax's PIN checker and records the evidence. Build that into your supplier set-up routine, so no supplier is paid until someone has done it.
Keeping the evidence with the supplier record
Achekam keeps one supplier list for the business, with duplicate checks by name or VAT number, and quotations, orders and bills pick suppliers from it. That makes the supplier record the natural home for everything about the supplier.
Keep the evidence beside it in Document Centre, which lets a business upload files or whole folders, tag and search them, and keeps earlier versions when a new one is uploaded:
- the PIN checker result, dated;
- the tax compliance certificate and the checker's result, tagged with the expiry date;
- the supplier's registration documents and bank confirmation letter.
One limit to know: a supplier's VAT number in Achekam must currently be in the South African format, so Kenyan VAT numbers are refused on the supplier screen. Keep the supplier's VAT details in the evidence folder until the screen follows Kenyan formats.
The GavaConnect connection that is not live yet
KRA's GavaConnect gives approved developers PIN and tax compliance certificate checkers, and NIL return filing, through an API. It offers no API for filing VAT, corporation tax, PAYE or withholding tax returns.
Achekam has a GavaConnect connector, but it does not check KRA PINs or tax compliance certificates through GavaConnect in production today. For it to work, the business enters its own GavaConnect approved-developer keys and addresses, the connection must pass a health check, and an Achekam platform administrator must authorise it for production. Until all three happen, the checks are manual, on KRA's own site, as described above.
A supplier set-up routine
Put the checks into the order in which a new supplier is added, so none is skipped when someone is in a hurry:
- Search the supplier list for the name and PIN, to avoid a duplicate record.
- Run the PIN checker and the certificate checker, and save both results.
- Confirm the supplier will issue eTIMS invoices for what you buy, and through which channel.
- File the evidence in the supplier's folder, tagged with the certificate's expiry date.
- Have a second person look over the folder before the first payment is released.
The person who asked for the supplier should not be the one who approves it. That separation is cheap and catches most problems.
When to check again
A clean check on day one does not last for ever. Check again:
- before the certificate's expiry date, and ask the supplier for the new certificate;
- before awarding a large order or a new contract;
- whenever the supplier's name, PIN or bank details change;
- if an invoice arrives without a valid eTIMS reference;
- once a year for every active supplier, as a sweep.
The certificate itself, from your own side as well as the supplier's, is explained in the Kenyan tax compliance certificate, and the difference between a KRA PIN and other identifiers in the Nigerian Tax ID and the KRA PIN. Start with your most-paid suppliers this month.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
