Filing your return after working for two employers
What a Kenyan employee who had two employers in one year files with KRA, which return applies, and how to get a P9A from each employer.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
Changing jobs mid-year is common, and so is holding two jobs at once: a full-time post and a part-time lecturing contract, or a day job and a weekend role. Each employer deducts PAYE and sends it to KRA. It feels as if the tax must be settled.
KRA sees it differently. Each employer only knows about the pay it gave you. The annual return is where the whole year comes together, and KRA expects that return to cover every employer, in one filing. This article explains what to file, which version of the return applies to you, and how to collect the paperwork from each employer.
One return covering every employer
KRA says an employee with more than one employer in the year must declare income from all employers in a single return, filing with the P9 form. Employment details are prepopulated on iTax.
Two things follow:
- Not two returns. You do not file one return per job. Every employer's income goes into the same return for the year.
- Check what iTax shows. Prepopulated does not mean correct. Compare the figures on iTax with the P9 from each employer before you submit.
If an employer's figure on iTax differs from its P9, ask that employer's payroll team which is right before you file. It may be a month declared late or a payment recorded in the wrong year, and either is far easier to sort out before the return is in than after. Keep your payslips for the year; they are your own evidence of what each employer paid and deducted.
Why PAYE does not remove the duty to file
It is natural to think that if both employers deducted and paid PAYE, there is nothing left to do. KRA says otherwise: the individual income tax return is a requirement under section 52 of the Income Tax Act, even for employees whose employers have filed PAYE returns.
KRA also says every person with a KRA PIN and an income tax obligation must file an annual return, and must file a nil return in a year with no income. Having had two employers means there is clearly income to declare.
Each employer worked out PAYE on its own payroll, looking only at what it paid you. The return is the only place where the two are added together, which is why KRA insists on it.
Auto-populated return or the Excel IT1
Most employees file the auto-populated employment return. KRA says a taxpayer must file the Excel IT1 return instead if they:
- have a withholding tax certificate;
- have income other than employment;
- had an employer whose PAYE was not remitted through iTax.
Having two employers is not, by itself, on that list. If both employers remitted PAYE through iTax and you have no other income or withholding certificates, the prepopulated route is open to you. But if one employer was a small business that did not remit through iTax, or you also earned consulting fees, you move to the Excel IT1.
KRA's frequently asked questions on filing returns on iTax set out when the Excel IT1 is needed and why employees must file even when PAYE was deducted.
If you had income on the side as well, read declaring side income on top of a salary.
P9 forms from each employer
The P9 (often called the P9A) is each employer's summary of what it paid you during the year and the PAYE it deducted. You need one from every employer you worked for during the year, including the one you left in March.
Ask early. A former employer has less reason to prioritise you, and payroll staff change. A short, polite e-mail giving your KRA PIN, your dates of employment and the year you need is usually enough. Our article on the P9A at year-end covers what the form shows and how employers prepare it.
Getting your P9A from an employer that uses Achekam
If one of your employers runs payroll on Achekam, the P9A is prepared there. Achekam runs Kenyan payroll with PAYE, the Affordable Housing Levy, SHIF, NSSF Tier I and II and the NITA levy, and prepares a P9A for each employee for the year from the approved pay runs, alongside the monthly P10, SHIF, NSSF and NITA schedules.
There is one limit worth knowing. Achekam's employee self-service shows only South African tax certificates, so a Kenyan employee's P9A is available only on the payroll side. You cannot download it from your own self-service login; ask the employer's payroll team to send it to you.
Common mistakes
- Filing only the current employer's income. The former employer's pay is just as much part of the year.
- Trusting the prepopulated figures without checking. Compare them with each P9 line by line.
- Choosing the wrong return. If any of the Excel IT1 conditions apply, the auto-populated return is not the right one.
- Leaving out withholding certificates from part-time or contract work, which also pushes you to the Excel IT1.
- Waiting for a P9 that never comes. Chase it in good time, and keep your payslips so you can check the figures if it arrives late.
- Assuming no return is needed because PAYE was paid. Section 52 says otherwise.
For the filing deadline that applies to your year, see Kenyan individual return deadlines.
Make a list now of every employer you worked for this year, with dates, and ask each one for your P9A as soon as the year closes.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
