Client purchases from Special Table suppliers

Why iTax rejects input tax on a Kenyan client's purchases from a Special Table supplier, and how the firm finds, fixes and documents those lines.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in Kenya

The VAT return is ready, the upload starts, and iTax stops on a purchase line with a message the client has never seen: "This PIN is not liable to input tax deduction". The supplier issued a proper-looking invoice, the client paid the VAT on it, and now the claim is refused.

The cause is almost always the same. The supplier has been placed on KRA's VAT Special Table, and input tax on purchases from that supplier cannot be claimed. For the firm preparing the return, the task is to find every affected line, take the input tax out, explain the cost to the client and stop it happening again.

What the rejection message means

KRA says traders cannot claim input tax on purchases from a taxpayer on the VAT Special Table, and that iTax rejects such entries with the message "This PIN is not liable to input tax deduction". KRA's FAQs on VAT explain the Special Table and this rejection.

KRA also says who ends up on the table: nil filers, non-filers and suspected missing traders. A taxpayer placed there is blocked from filing VAT returns, and KRA says no penalty is charged for the returns it could not file as a result. To be removed, the taxpayer must contact its Tax Service Office for guidance.

That last point explains why the problem can persist. A supplier that does not act to be removed stays on the table, and every purchase from it keeps failing.

Finding the affected purchases

Treat the first rejection as a sign that every purchase from that supplier in the period will fail the same way, because the refusal attaches to the supplier's PIN rather than to one invoice.

1. Note the supplier's PIN on the rejected line and search the client's purchase schedule for it.
2. List every line from that supplier in the return period, with invoice number, date, value and VAT.
3. Check earlier periods the client has already filed. If the supplier was on the table then, those claims may be exposed too.
4. Remove the input tax on the affected lines from this return so the upload can proceed.

Keep the purchase itself in the client's records. Only the VAT claim falls away; the expense and the supplier's invoice still exist.

Talking to the supplier and the client

The client will ask why it has lost VAT it paid. Part of the answer lies in what KRA requires for any input tax claim: a valid electronic tax invoice or customs entry that shows the buyer's PIN, was transmitted to KRA, and whose sale the seller has declared in its own VAT return. A supplier on the Special Table is, by KRA's description, a nil filer, a non-filer or a suspected missing trader, so the last condition is the one in doubt.

Advise the client to contact the supplier, explain the rejection, and ask it to resolve its position with its Tax Service Office. If the supplier is removed from the table, the client can discuss with the firm whether a later claim is possible within the usual time limits; the window for input tax is covered in the six-month window for input tax. Until then, the claim stays out, and the client should understand that the VAT it paid on those purchases is, for now, a cost of doing business with that supplier. Put that plainly in writing: clients take a supplier problem more seriously when they see what it has cost them.

Supplier checks before future purchases

KRA says its PIN Checker confirms whether a PIN is genuine, and its Tax Agent Checker identifies authorised withholding VAT agents. KRA describes these checkers in those terms; it does not describe them as showing Special Table status, so a genuine PIN is not proof that input tax on that supplier will be accepted.

Practical habits that reduce the risk:

• confirm a new supplier's PIN before the first order;
• ask large or new suppliers whether they are up to date with VAT filing;
• watch for suppliers whose invoices do not come through eTIMS;
• treat one iTax rejection as a reason to review all open orders with that supplier.

More on this in checking a supplier's tax compliance, and on the table itself in the VAT Special Table explained.

Adjusting the client's VAT schedule in Achekam

Achekam computes a client's Kenyan VAT return from the sales and purchase schedules the firm brings in, because the client's own books are not linked to it. The return then moves through prepare, review and approve by different people. So the adjustment belongs in the purchase schedule: mark the affected lines, remove their input tax, and let the return be computed again from the corrected schedule. The reviewer then sees the change rather than a figure that differs from the client's records without explanation.

If the client keeps its own books on Achekam, there is a related check at its end. Achekam lists a Kenyan business's supplier invoices that have no eTIMS reference recorded, so it can see which expenses risk being disallowed. That list does not show Special Table status, but suppliers who do not issue eTIMS invoices deserve a second look for the same reasons.

The file note for the reviewer

Close the matter with a short note on the return file:

That note answers the questions the reviewer, the partner and, later, the client will ask. It also means the next preparer does not discover the same supplier from scratch next 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.