Hillary Gachango.

CPA |Economics |CX| Bulk Cement| Golf🏌️‍♂️

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@KRACare Nkt

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@MaMatigari @WashiraX @pitandirangu I run an audit and tax consulting firm.

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@MaMatigari @WashiraX @pitandirangu I need a lady accountant to start immediately. Send referrals.

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@pitandirangu @WashiraX Wa last minute, please I can accommodate. My car needs fuel!

[CPA Wachira Joseph @WashiraX]

KRA has graduated to your tax accountant,

Courtesy of the Finance Act, 2026.

• Starting in January 2027, it is KRA that shall FIRST tell you, what income it believes you earned in 2026. And what taxes you shall therefore pay.

KRA will do this by generating a pre populated income tax return using the information it already has, such as:

• eTIMS data
• PAYE records
• Withholding tax records
• Plus any other information already in KRA systems

KRA shall then send you this pre-populated return by 31st January 2027.

Once you receive it, you have 2 MONTHS (February and March), and 2 OPTIONS. To either:

• Confirm it. If it is correct. Or,

• Reject & amend it. If KRA got the numbers wrong. And provide your own numbers together with supporting documents.

- If you make your amendments late. Or,
- You do not make any amendments at all,

KRA shall conclude that you have agreed with its assessment, and you shall pay the KRA generated tax bill.

After that, you can use the amended or confirmed return to file your taxes as follows:

• If you are a human being, file by April 30th 2027.

• If you have no flesh & blood (company, partnership, trust, etc), file by June 30th.
(Or the last day of the sixth month after your accounting year ends.)

One more critical mistake to watch.

• Do not assume KRA's numbers are always correct. The law has expressly given you the right to accept or reject the pre-populated return before filing.

Lessons:
• Proper bookkeeping is King in 2026.
• Mark the new tax timelines in your calendar.

Now, reread this slowly.

[CPA Wachira Joseph @WashiraX]

New income tax filing deadlines in Kenya.

Starting 1 January 2027:

• Individuals like you and me will no longer file our annual income tax returns by 30 June.

The new deadline will be 30 April.

This applies to:

- Nil filers
- Freelancers and consultants
- Sole proprietors
- Employees filing individual returns

• For taxpayers without flesh and blood (companies, partnerships, trusts, etc.), nothing changes.

The deadline remains the last day of the sixth month following the end of the accounting period.

Example:

If a company's accounting year runs from January to December, it will still file its return by 30 June.

Courtesy of the Finance Act, 2026.

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@BaobabFrontline @bozgabi Spot on.

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

Interesting

[Julians Amboko @AmbokoJH]

One thing that shouldn't go unnoticed in today's Budget Speech, is how the National Treasury has refined the Finance Bill 2026 proposal to introduce a pay-to-play provision on matters tax appeal.

· Finance Bill 2026, as presently drafted, proposes an overt deletion of Sec42 (14,e) of the Tax Procedures Act
· This proposal sought to change the tax appeals landscape by terminating the safeguard that the Revenue Authority is barred from issuance of agency notices in instances where a taxpayer has appealed an assessment
· Today, the CS brought forward a modified version of this proposal
· The National Treasury now wants the law to provide that enforcement shall be barred ONLY where a stay order has been secured by the taxpayer

Import:

· After failure at three successive attempts (see quoted tweet), the National Treasury is determined to succeed with pay-to-play on this fourth attempt
· The proposed adjustment is the proverbial iron fist now dressed in a velvet globe. It is just as problematic as the initial one
· Taxpayers will get caught in the chase for stay orders & what will be at risk here is tax justice

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@OmbeniSheshe @DaviesKinanga Can I come clean my dpf as well?

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@alexmwanzo I will use the car without plates. Print the paper sticker plate and any cop who wants to pursue will have to first take for a ride to Ntsa offices.

[MEI♡ @love_SKZfr]

Unachomoa your honest 3 inches alafu unapata your luo babe ako na clit same size💀

[CPA Wachira Joseph @WashiraX]

KRA wants a share of dowry money.

There is a guy called Kamau.

When it was time to buy his wife, he mobilized his most monied buddies.

He put them in a WhatsApp group. The fundraising began.

Those boys were loaded. They were only 35.
By by the time they were done, they had contributed 4.5 million shillings.

Others who were not in the group wired money directly to Kamau's bank account.

The ruracio D-Day arrived.

And as always, the one and only Kikuyu ruracio anthem was tuned.

🎶 Wero... Werokamu guku kwa wa Kanini... Werokamu... 🎶

Before they could finish the song, more than 2,000 people had pulled up.

Wakaanza kutoa funjo. Then one man stood on a stool and announced they could not sit until they had given Kamau top up money to add to the dowry.

The donation book was hurriedly brought. People lined up. Cash started flowing.

By the end of the day, another 2.8 million shillings had been raised.

Kamau took the money and banked it.

Total dowry contribution sitting at his bank account: 8m shillings.

The ceremony became the talk of Gatundu South.

Kamau paid his dowry. Collected his wife. And went home peacefully.

• Lesson 1. Monied friends are good for paying dowry.

I have no clue how. But sometime later, Kamau was marked for a KRA tax audit.

KRA went straight for his bank statements. They found deposits of 8 million shillings.

Immediately, they baptized the entire amount as undeclared taxable income.

Then demanded: 30% income tax. Penalties plus interest.

Total bill: 2.5 million shillings plus.

When Kamau saw the tax bill, he went mad.
He could try to talk but words would not come out. He nearly swallowed his tongue.

When he came back to real life. He shipped a protest letter to KRA.

He explained the money was dowry contribution from his family, friends and well wishers.

- He produced WhatsApp group fundraising screenshots.
- He produced RTGS confirmations.
- He produced the donation book.
- He even produced videos of the ceremony.

Including footage of the Werokamu song.

KRA could not hear any of it. They only wanted 2.5 million.

When Kamau realized KRA was not playing, he ran to court.

He told the Tribunal:

- My lord, look. I have shown KRA where the money came from.
- I have shown KRA who contributed it.
- I have shown KRA the ceremony.
- What more do they want from me?

KRA responded.
And what they said nearly made the judges fall off their chairs.

They argued the evidence was not convincing.

Why?

• Because the 2,000 plus donors had not sworn affidavits confirming that the money they gave was a donation and not payment for goods or services.

The Tribunal looked at the matter in amusement.

Then ruled.

- Kamau had discharged his burden of proof in full.
- KRA had acted unreasonably by ignoring and disregarding the substantial evidence he provided.
- And most importantly: Income tax is a tax on income. It is not a tax on every deposit appearing in a bank account.

The Tribunal found that KRA was wrong to treat all bank deposits as taxable income without first removing proven non income items such as dowry contributions.

The tax demand was killed.

Kamau won.

KRA retreated to Times Tower. And rested.

Case closed.

• Lesson 2.

- Document everything.

- KRA will push. Push hard.

[I may have @QuincyWandera]

I was working with the red cross when the Kyanguli fire happened. The morning after the fire we went to pick up bodies. I removed severed limbs of kids that tried to escape through the roof. The dormitory door had been chained from outside. At the said door, was a pile of bodies

[Eng.Kogi🔨 @John63681549]

Mother comes to rescue her arsenal fan husband from her irritating sons😆😆.

[𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔬 💋 @bgftjcypsy]

Ruto was sent to kill,steal and destroy

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@pitandirangu @AmbokoJH Very true and much welcome for the TPs, however sisi Tax consultants tutakula wapi? Langu jicho tu😅

[CPA Peter Ndirangu @pitandirangu]

As @AmbokoJH rightly proposes, it is time to amend Section 56(1) and place the burden where it belongs ! On the person making the allegation.

As the common law principle dictates: he who alleges must prove.

[Julians Amboko @AmbokoJH]

Should the taxpayer still bear the burden of proof in instances where a tax dispute with the Revenue Authority is based in pre-populated & third party data?

In my submission before the National Assembly's Finance & Planning Committee on behalf of the Tax Research Centre at @StrathU, I argue that Finance Bill 2026's proposals seeking to anchor Incomes & Expenses Validation in law will be incomplete if they do not include a proposal for the the Revenue Authority being saddled with the burden of proof in such instances.

Here's why:

· Finance Bill 2026 proposes to amend Sec75 of the Tax Procedures Act to provide that the Revenue Authority may use technology to pre-populate tax returns on behalf of a person required to submit or lodge a tax return

· Finance Bill 2026 further proposes that a person required to submit or lodge a tax return may rely on pre-populated return generated by the Revenue Authority to file their return

· Finance Bill 2026 proposes to amend Sec112 to provide that the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury may make Regulations for the procedure for the submission or lodging of returns based on pre-populated tax returns generated by the Revenue Authority

Here's where the problem is:

· In all this, Sec56(1) which provides that "In any proceedings, the burden shall be on the taxpayer to prove that a tax decision is incorrect" remains unchanged

· Sec56(1) is predicated on the fact that Kenya has been running on a self-assessment based regime & the data upon which tax disputes emerges was held by the taxpayer

· With Incomes & Expenses Validation & the onset of a Dual Assessment regime in Kenya, taxpayers are now exposed not just to errors of judgement & data on their part, but also errors of technology & transmission which are out of their control

· Can we really still have the burden of proof lying exclusively with the taxpayer in an environment where tax compliance has shifted from a function of record keeping to one where system integration reliability is now a key factor?

[Hillary Gachango. @HMGachango]

@WashiraX Hujapatana na hawa wanafanya proper revenue lakini mtu wa cyber ndio consultant.

[CPA Wachira Joseph @WashiraX]

Pro Bono advice.

I keep receiving cases of sole proprietors and salaried employees who walked into KRA offices,

And a KRA officer “helped” them file their returns.

They then handed over their iTax passwords.

Then relaxed. Believing a pro is now in control.

One year later, the phone rings. KRA is calling. They want taxes to be paid. ASAP.

Or they apply for a Tax Compliance Certificate. And KRA tells them: Apana bossi, you have arrears.

That is when they realize that the return was:
• Filed wrongly
• Or filed in a way the taxpayer never agreed

When we step in to amend the return,
That is when the full mess reveals itself.

But before you rush to blame KRA, understand your duty.

- Filing your tax return is YOUR own responsibility. You carry the full consequences. Even if someone else keyed in the numbers.

KRA does not have the mandate to file your self-assessment returns.

That is your job.

Do not go to seek tax advice from a tax collector.
A tax collector has targets.

If you are not careful, he will “help” you file your taxes upward.

It’s like taking the no. 1 toothpaste recommended by dentists,

And expecting perfect teeth.

Be careful who handles your taxes.

If a KRA officer genuinely wants to help, let them file from their back end. Not with your password.