Kenya Announces Upgrade of Tax Invoice Management System

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced the launch of the second phase of the electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS).

Impact

eTIMS is an upgrade of the Tax Invoice Management System (TIMS), which originally upgraded the Electronic Tax Register (ETR) regime that was rolled out in 2005. The launch of phase II of the Tax Invoice Management System further facilitates electronic tax invoice management in Kenya, and includes improved validation of data and real-time or near real-time transmission of invoices to the KRA.

The first phase of the Tax Invoice Management System allowed businesses to generate electronic tax invoices, track their usage and then submit them to the KRA for verification and approval. The second phase includes enhanced features that aims to make the invoice management process more robust, user-friendly, and efficient. Some of the key features include:

• Taxpayers can utilize an online portal to issue tax invoices and seamlessly transmit them to KRA in real-time
• A user-friendly mobile application is available for taxpayers to generate and issue tax invoices from their mobile phones
• An integration application is available for taxpayers that facilitates integration with existing billing systems, allowing businesses to continue using their preferred invoicing software while ensuring smooth data transmission to the KRA

The KRA will provide the upgraded software to taxpayers at no extra cost, thus making it more accessible.