How long a Kenyan business should keep its records
How far back KRA can assess a Kenyan business, why that sets the minimum for keeping records, and a yearly routine for archiving them in Achekam.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
Every business reaches the moment when the storeroom fills up with box files and someone asks whether the old ones can go. Old bank statements, supplier invoices from three suppliers ago, payroll printouts for staff who left long ago. Keeping everything forever is expensive and messy. Throwing out the wrong year can leave you unable to answer KRA.
The useful question is not "how long must we keep paper?" in the abstract, but "how far back can KRA come and ask?". If you cannot support a figure in a year KRA is still entitled to examine, the gap is yours to explain. This article looks at that window, what the research behind it does and does not settle, and a practical routine for keeping records in good order.
KRA can look five years back, unless there is fraud
KRA cannot raise assessments more than 5 years back, except in cases of fraud. That limit tells you the minimum span your records need to cover. If a year is still inside the window, KRA can examine it, and you will want the documents that support every figure in that year's returns.
The fraud exception has no such boundary. That is not a reason to keep everything forever, but it is a reason not to destroy records in a hurry, and never once a question has been raised.
No general retention period in the research
The research behind this article does not state a general record-keeping period for Kenya. It establishes how far back KRA can assess; it does not establish a single number of years for which every record must be kept.
The duty to keep records is set out in section 23 of the Tax Procedures Act. The consolidated Tax Procedures Act on Kenya Law covers PIN registration, record-keeping, electronic tax invoices, assessments, objections, tax compliance certificates and penalties. Read section 23 with your accountant, and ask whether any other law you are subject to, such as the rules for companies or employers, sets a period of its own.
Why the window is a minimum, not a target
Several kinds of record need to outlive the five-year window:
- Assets. The invoice for a vehicle or a building supports its cost for as long as you own it and claim allowances on it, and when you sell it.
- Contracts and leases. A long lease or loan agreement supports figures in every year it runs.
- Disputes. If a year is under objection or appeal, its records stay until the matter is closed. The dates for objecting are explained in objecting to a tax assessment in Nigeria or Kenya.
- Losses carried forward. A loss used in a later year depends on the records of the year it arose.
A practical rule of thumb is to count the window from the year the record last affected a return, not the year it was created.
eTIMS invoices behind every expense
Since 1 January 2024, Kenyan business expenses not supported by an eTIMS invoice are disallowed for income tax, and from the 2026 year of income every expense needs one. That makes the eTIMS invoice the record that matters most for your expenses. A bank payment proves you paid; the eTIMS invoice is what supports the deduction.
Keep the eTIMS invoice, or its reference, with each supplier bill, and keep it for as long as the year it was claimed in can be assessed. Finding a missing invoice is far easier in the month you paid than in year four of the window. The suppliers who most often leave gaps are covered in supplier invoices without eTIMS.
Till records kept for seven years in Achekam
If you run Achekam's till, your till records are kept for 7 years. That is South Africa's retention period. No Kenyan retention period was researched, so Achekam applies the South African one to Kenyan till records until Kenyan and Nigerian retention policies exist. The practical effect is that your till history stays available well beyond KRA's five-year assessment window.
Source documents stored with fingerprints
For everything else, Achekam's Document Centre is a folder-based store. You can upload files or whole folders, preview, download, rename, move, tag, archive and search them, and a new version of a file keeps the earlier ones.
Every stored file gets a SHA-256 fingerprint: a value calculated from the file's contents, which changes if even one character of the file changes. That lets you show later that the invoice you produce is the one you stored. Executable files are refused by default, and every upload passes a malware check (ClamAV where the server is configured for it, otherwise a built-in check).
Uploads go in batches of up to 25 files, at up to 100 MB per file by default, which is ample for scanned invoices and statements.
A yearly archive routine
Once the year's return has been filed and paid:
- Create a folder for the year in Document Centre, with sub-folders for sales, purchases, bank, payroll and tax.
- Upload what is still on paper: scanned supplier bills with their eTIMS invoices, signed contracts, payroll approvals.
- Add the year's statements: bank and M-Pesa statements for every month.
- File the returns and acknowledgements for VAT, PAYE, withholding tax and the annual return.
- Tag long-life records such as asset invoices, leases and loan agreements, so they are not swept out with the rest.
- Archive the year, and note on your calendar the year in which its five-year window closes.
- Before discarding anything, check that the year is outside the window, is not under objection or appeal, and holds no long-life records.
Keep the paper originals of anything you are not sure about. A box file is cheap. An unanswerable question from KRA is not.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
