The Kenya Revenue Authority says it has identified more than one million property owners who collect rent without declaring it for tax, and plans to use a digital system to bring them into the tax net.
In submissions to Parliament’s Finance and National Planning Committee on October 28, KRA said its Electronic Rental Income Tax System (eRITS), launched in April 2025, cross-checks property records against tenant data and rental declarations. The platform links to the eCitizen portal, and KRA says geolocation mapping is also being developed.
The system covers resident landlords earning between Ksh288,000 and Ksh15 million a year. They pay 7.5 per cent of gross rent as a final tax, with no deductions for expenses, and must file monthly by the 20th of the following month.
KRA estimates that illicit trade, counterfeiting and tax evasion cost the government about Ksh153 billion a year, and that uncollected rental income makes up roughly 65 per cent of those losses.
The push comes as the Treasury has set KRA an ordinary revenue target of Ksh2.98 trillion for the 2026/2027 financial year. KRA has also told MPs it plans to use till numbers and Pochi la Biashara data to track undeclared business income.
Source: Kenyans.co.ke.
