Filing iTax returns with the Excel forms
How KRA's iTax Excel returns work for a Kenyan business: the right form, macros, CSV imports, credit notes, the zipped upload and keeping workings.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
Most iTax returns are not web pages you type into. They are Excel workbooks that you download, fill in on your own computer and send back as a compressed file. Once the routine is familiar it is quick. The first few times, small things go wrong: the workbook opens with its buttons dead, a pasted list lands in the wrong columns, or the file that gets uploaded is the spreadsheet rather than the zip.
This article follows one return from download to upload, with the points where Kenyan businesses most often get stuck.
Downloading the form and enabling macros
KRA's FAQ on filing returns describes the process in one line: iTax returns are downloaded as Excel forms, completed offline with macros enabled, and uploaded as a generated zipped file.
Start on the iTax portal, where you log in with your PIN, or national ID, and password. Download the form for the return you are filing, and fetch it again each filing season rather than reusing a copy saved on the desktop months ago, so that you are working on the version iTax currently offers.
When the workbook opens, Excel will usually hold its macros back because the file came from the internet. The form depends on them to produce the file you upload. Allow the macros for this workbook before you type anything, or you may complete every sheet and then find the form cannot generate its zip.
Importing large data sets from CSV
Typing a few lines is fine. Typing hundreds of sales invoices or a long employee list is where errors creep in. KRA's FAQ says large data sets can be imported into the return from CSV.
A few habits make imports reliable:
- Match the column order of your CSV to the sheet you are importing into before you start.
- Keep PINs, invoice numbers and dates in the format the sheet expects, and watch for spreadsheet programs that drop leading characters or reformat dates.
- After the import, compare the sheet's totals with the totals in your books. A difference means a line was dropped or doubled.
One point specific to Achekam users running Kenyan payroll: the P10, SHIF, NSSF and NITA schedules download only in Achekam's own CSV layout and as a PDF, not in each authority's upload template. The figures are there, but the columns need mapping to the iTax sheet before you import. Do the mapping once, save it as a template, and check it each time KRA changes the form. The monthly P10 PAYE return covers that return in detail.
Credit notes and credits from last month
Two VAT entries cause most questions. KRA says credit notes are entered in the return as negative figures, quoting the invoice they relate to. A credit note entered as a positive figure, or without its original invoice, will distort the return.
KRA also says VAT credits from a previous month go in the Tax Due worksheet of the VAT return. If last month ended in a credit, carry it there rather than netting it against this month's sales or purchases.
Generating the zip and uploading it
When the sheets are complete, the form's macros generate a zipped file. That zip, not the Excel workbook, is what you upload on iTax against the right return and period.
Before generating it, look once more at the basics: the PIN, the return period and the totals. A return generated for the wrong month uploads just as smoothly as the right one, and putting it right afterwards takes far longer than the check. Name each zip with the tax, the period and the date you generated it, so that a folder of returns stays readable a year later.
Keep three things together for every return: the completed workbook, the zip you uploaded and the acknowledgement iTax gives you. If KRA later queries a figure, the workbook shows how you got there, and the acknowledgement proves what was filed and when.
Achekam's schedules as your workings, and recording the filing
Achekam does not file Kenyan returns, and nothing in it uploads to iTax. What it gives you is a controlled set of workings and a record of the filing.
A Kenyan tax return prepared in Achekam is prepared by one person, reviewed by a second and approved by a third. After approval, its rule snapshot and figures are frozen; an amendment becomes a new version, and nothing is overwritten. Those frozen figures are the source you copy or import into the Excel form, which means the numbers on iTax can always be traced back to an approved return.
After filing, a person with the business's KRA filing permission uploads the iTax acknowledgement into Achekam, and a different person verifies it before the return counts as filed. That second look catches the classic mistake of uploading the wrong period.
When to call the KRA contact centre
Some problems are not yours to solve. Call KRA when an upload is rejected repeatedly with a message you cannot interpret, when the form will not generate its zip even with macros allowed, or when iTax refuses the return because of earlier periods you cannot identify; that last case is explained in why iTax will not take this month's return.
The iTax portal lists KRA's call centre as 020-4999999, 020-4998000 and 0711-099999, and the e-mail address callcentre@kra.go.ke. Before you call, have the PIN, the return type and period, the exact error message and a screenshot ready.
Everything starts on the iTax portal, where you log in with your PIN to file returns, generate payment slips and use KRA's checkers for PINs and compliance certificates.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
