Kenya writes eTIMS electronic tax invoices into the VAT Act definition of a tax invoice
This page records one dated change. For the rules in Kenya as they stand today, see the Kenya guide →
- Jurisdiction
- Kenya
- Tax
- VAT
- Change type
- Invoice rules
- Status
- In force
- Impact
- FYI
- Announced
- 27 June 2025
- Effective
- 1 July 2025
- Instrument
- KE-ACT-9-2025
- Authority
- National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law)
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
VAT-registered persons in Kenya issuing or relying on tax invoices, including those issued through eTIMS.
No action — monitoring only.
Finance Act 2025 (Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 104, Acts No. 9, assented 27 June 2025, effective 1 July 2025) amends VAT Act s.2 to insert a statutory definition of 'tax invoice' that explicitly includes electronic tax invoices issued through eTIMS (section 23A of the Tax Procedures Act), resolving ambiguity about whether eTIMS invoices satisfied the VAT Act's invoicing requirement.
What changed in detail
Section 32 of the Finance Act, 2025 (No. 9 of 2025, Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 104; assented 27 June 2025; in force 1 July 2025) amends section 2(1) of the VAT Act, CAP 476, by inserting a new definition in alphabetical sequence:
“tax invoice” includes an electronic tax invoice issued in accordance with section 23A of the Tax Procedures Act.
Section 23A of the Tax Procedures Act (CAP 469B) is the provision under which electronic tax invoices are generated and transmitted through the Kenya Revenue Authority’s electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS).
What it means
Before this amendment the VAT Act’s invoicing rules and the Tax Procedures Act’s eTIMS rules sat side by side without an explicit link, which left room to argue about whether an eTIMS invoice was a “tax invoice” for VAT purposes. The definition, still in force, closes that gap: an eTIMS invoice is a tax invoice in the VAT Act’s own terms. Taken with KRA’s practice since January 2024 of disallowing input VAT that is not validated through eTIMS (ke-etims-vat-prefill-2023), the eTIMS invoice is in practice the document a Kenyan VAT claim rests on.
Proof
“tax invoice” includes an electronic tax invoice issued in accordance with section 23A of the Tax Procedures Act.
Source snapshot of the official page. Open full size ↗Archived from the official distribution · The Finance Act, 2025 (No. 9 of 2025), Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 104, 27 June 2025 · kenyalaw.org