The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has issued detailed instructions on how taxpayers should capture and upload manual and non-eTIMS/TIMS invoices when filing income tax returns for the 2025 tax period.
Under the measure, taxpayers will be allowed to claim genuine business expenses not supported by eTIMS/TIMS invoices, provided the costs were wholly and exclusively incurred in generating taxable income.
The declared expenses will, however, be subject to verification after submission.
KRA said the concession applies strictly to the 2025 Income Tax Return and is intended to ease compliance as the system transitions to stricter digital invoicing validation.
To facilitate the process, the authority has introduced a “Manual Non eTIMS/TIMS Expenses” field within the income tax return.
Taxpayers are required to first upload transaction details through the Income Tax Return Adjustments – Manual & Non eTIMS/TIMS Invoices section on the iTax platform before making any claims.
New KRA Guidelines Allow Manual Expense Claims in 2025 Tax Returns
- Log in to your iTax account.
- Navigate to Returns > Income Tax Return Adjustments > Manual & Non eTIMS/TIMS Invoices.
- Select the “Period” from the drop-down menu and proceed to select “Next”. The 2025 tax period applies to all taxpayers, including those whose accounting periods begin on or before 1st January 2025.
- The system will prompt you with the question “Do you want to adjust Manual Non eTIMS/TIMS invoices?”, please select “OK”.
- Download the CSV template from the hyperlink highlighted below and complete it with details of the expenses being claimed.
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Other Directives Issued
Further, the Authority issued detailed guidelines on how taxpayers should capture and upload manual and non-eTIMS/TIMS invoices when filing income tax returns.
Taxpayers are required to use a prescribed CSV template containing specific fields, including Supplier PIN, Supplier Name, Invoice Number, Invoice Date, Supply Description, and Amount.
KRA said the column labels must be maintained as provided, with data captured from row two of the template.
Also Read: KRA Explains Conditions Under Which School Fees Can Be Claimed as Tax Deductions
According to the guidelines, the Supplier PIN field is optional, but if provided, it must be a valid KRA PIN. The system will flag invalid PINs during upload.
The Authority further stated that the declared amount must be VAT-exclusive for VAT-registered taxpayers and VAT-inclusive for non-VAT-registered taxpayers.
KRA has set a limit of up to 50,000 line items per CSV upload. Taxpayers have also been cautioned against using special characters such as commas in numerical entries, noting that amounts should be entered as plain figures to avoid upload errors.
Additionally, taxpayers are advised to scan supporting documents, including invoices, into a single PDF file that does not exceed 10MB for upload.
Once submitted, taxpayers must file their returns and reflect the uploaded figures in the Manual Non eTIMS/TIMS Expenses field on the computation sheet.
The system allows multiple updates before final submission, with only the most recent full upload being considered valid.
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