The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced a four-hour temporary shutdown of its iTax system to allow for scheduled maintenance.
In a public notice issued on Friday, the tax authority said the maintenance exercise will begin on Sunday, May 10, 2026, at 6:00am and end at 10:00am, lasting 4 hours.
According to the KRA, the exercise will affect all iTax users nationwide, and the platform is expected to remain unavailable throughout the maintenance period.
“Kenya Revenue Authority informs all stakeholders that there will be a scheduled maintenance of iTax from Sunday, 10th May 2026, 6:00 AM to Sunday, 10th May 2026, 10:00 AM,” read the notice in part.
KRA to Shut Down iTax System on May 10 for Maintenance
The authority said the iTax platform is the only system expected to be affected during the planned maintenance window.
The temporary outage means taxpayers will be unable to access key online services, including tax filing, payments, returns submission, compliance checks, and other transactions processed through the iTax portal.
The Taxman has advised taxpayers to plan ahead and complete transactions outside the stated period to avoid disruptions.
KRA apologized for the inconvenience caused and urged users to plan their transactions outside the maintenance hours.
“During this period, iTax will be unavailable. Any inconvenience caused is highly regretted,” the authority stated.
The iTax platform is widely used by individuals, businesses, employers, and tax agents to process tax obligations and access KRA services online.
Also Read: What KRA’s 50% Tax Rebate Means for Employers Hiring Graduates
The Kenya Revenue Authority has reiterated its reliance on technology-driven verification of business activities and its efforts the reduce tax expenditure to bridge the sharp disparity in the country’s tax distribution.
KRA Losing Ksh500 Billion Annually in Personal Income Tax Gap
According to data from the taxman, only 40% of registered taxpayers are actively remitting and filing taxes.
KRA has 22.6 million registered taxpayers, out of which only about 8 million are actively filing and paying taxes.
For instance, on the corporate side, more than 3,000 large businesses and over 6,000 medium-sized enterprises and corporations account for 60% of the country’s realized revenue.
Low compliance levels in both personal income tax (PIT) and corporate income tax (CIT) point to a structural imbalance in which the tax burden is largely borne by formal-sector employees.
The authority notes that it is foregoing over Ksh500 billion in PIT, despite having realized only Ksh12.5 billion in the last financial year, representing a 97.7% gap.
Value Added Tax (VAT) collections also show a significant disparity, with a potential of Ksh1.031 trillion against realized collections of Ksh653 billion, leaving a gap of Ksh378 billion.
In the rental income tax category, the taxman revealed that the current collections stand at Ksh13.7 billion against an estimated potential of Ksh80 billion, leaving a gap of Ksh66.3 billion.
Also Read: Overhaul as KRA Ends Manually Declared Exports and Prices of Commodities Rise in April
KRA reports that improving compliance and closing just 25% of the regulatory and enforcement gap could significantly boost rental tax revenues.
KRA has continued to roll out measures to strengthen tax compliance, including the Electronic Tax Invoicing Management System (eTIMS), participation in the Common Reporting Standard for the exchange of financial information, and integration with banking and mobile money platforms.
The authority has also introduced the Shuru service on WhatsApp to simplify filing for employment income returns.
