What a Kenyan electronic tax invoice must show
The details Kenyan law requires on an electronic tax invoice, from both parties' PINs to the QR code, with a checklist for reviewing your own invoices.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
A customer's accounts clerk sends your invoice back. It is missing their PIN, or the description just says "services", or there is no QR code. To you it is a small detail. To them it is an expense they cannot deduct and input VAT they cannot claim, and they will not pay until it is fixed.
Kenyan law is specific about what an electronic tax invoice must show. The requirements sit in two places, the Tax Procedures Act and the Electronic Tax Invoice Regulations, and they overlap without being identical. This article brings them together so you can check your own invoices against both.
The heading and the two parties
Section 23A(2A) of the Tax Procedures Act, in the consolidated version on Kenya Law, requires an electronic tax invoice to show:
- the words "TAX INVOICE";
- the supplier's name, address and PIN;
- the purchaser's name, address and PIN, if the purchaser has one.
The supplier's PIN is not optional. KRA says an invoice without the supplier's PIN is not a valid tax invoice and is not allowed for tax deduction. Your customer cannot fix that for you; only you can.
The Regulations add a condition on the buyer's PIN: it must appear where the buyer will claim the expense or input tax. In practice, most business customers will want it. If a PIN is left out or mistyped, the correction route is set out in fixing an eTIMS invoice with the wrong buyer PIN.
The lines: what was sold, how much and at what rate
Both texts want the supply described properly. The Act asks for a description and quantity of the goods or services, any discount, the consideration, and the tax rate and amount.
Regulation 7(1) of the Tax Procedures (Electronic Tax Invoice) Regulations, 2024 is more detailed at line level. Each invoice must show:
- the item code;
- the description;
- the quantity and unit of measure;
- the tax rate;
- the gross amount and the tax amount.
"Consulting" with no quantity or unit is the kind of line that causes trouble. "Monthly bookkeeping, 1 month" or "Cement, 50 kg bag, 20 units" says what the law asks for.
System identifiers and the QR code
An electronic tax invoice is more than a document; it is a record in KRA's system. Regulation 7(1) requires each invoice to carry unique system and invoice identifiers and a QR code, together with the time and date and a serial number.
KRA says TIMS and eTIMS compliant invoices carry a QR code that can be verified with a QR reader, and that the invoice checker on the iTax page can also be used. Your customers can, and increasingly do, scan your invoices before they pay. How a buyer checks an invoice is covered in checking a supplier's eTIMS invoice.
The Regulations can be read in full in the Electronic Tax Invoice Regulations on Kenya Law, where regulation 7 lists what each invoice must show.
Serial numbers and one original per supply
KRA says a tax invoice should be serially numbered and generated from eTIMS, and that only one original invoice, credit note or debit note may be issued for a supply. A second "original" for the same sale is not allowed; changes go through a credit or debit note instead.
The Regulations require credit and debit notes to refer to the original invoice number, and KRA says a credit note is issued within six months after the relevant tax invoice. Plan corrections early rather than at year-end.
What Achekam prints, and one defect to know about
Achekam prints eTIMS identifiers on an invoice only once the invoice is fiscalised. Until then, the document says it is not yet fiscalised, and a submission to KRA's sandbox is labelled as test only. That stops an unfiscalised invoice from looking like a valid electronic tax invoice.
While Achekam's own eTIMS connection is not live, a Kenyan business issues the invoice through another eTIMS channel, such as eTIMS Lite, the eTIMS Client or an integrator, and records the control-unit invoice number, internal data and receipt signature in Achekam. A second person verifies them, and only then does the invoice count as fiscalised.
The heading follows your VAT status. A business enters its VAT registration number in Settings under Firm Profile, and documents made by the server print it and are titled Tax Invoice only when a VAT number is set.
There is a known defect to work around. The invoice PDF downloaded or e-mailed from the invoice screen is always headed TAX INVOICE and cites the South African VAT Act, whatever the business's country or VAT number. The server's own template handles this correctly; the browser-made PDF does not. Until that is fixed, check what your customer receives. More on this in invoice PDFs showing South African wording.
A checklist for reviewing your own invoices
Take three recent invoices, one to a business, one to an individual and one credit note, and check:
- [ ] The words "TAX INVOICE", as section 23A(2A) asks.
- [ ] Your name, address and PIN, correct and complete.
- [ ] The customer's name, address and PIN where they will claim it.
- [ ] A serial number from eTIMS, and the date and time.
- [ ] Each line with item code, description, quantity, unit of measure and tax rate.
- [ ] Any discount shown, with gross and tax amounts.
- [ ] System and invoice identifiers and a QR code that scans.
- [ ] Credit notes referring to the original invoice number, within six months of it.
- [ ] No second "original" issued for the same supply.
If any box is empty, fix the template or the customer record at the source, so the next hundred invoices are right as well. Then scan one of your own QR codes; it is the quickest way to see what your customers see.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
