The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has rolled out the Electronic Tax Invoice requirements effective 1 August 2021. All Value Added Tax (VAT)-registered persons were required to comply with the requirements of the Value Added Tax (Electronic Tax Invoice) Regulations, 2020 regarding implementation of the electronic tax invoice within a period of 12 months from 1 August 2021.
Key aspects of the guidelines
The issued guidelines provide for a compliance mechanism for the electronic tax invoice requirements. A compliant ETR should have the following capabilities:
- To check the invoice details (tax rate, taxable value, total tax and total gross amount) before issuance of the tax invoice to the customer
- To transmit validated tax invoices to KRA over the internet on a real time or near real time basis
- To generate credit and debit notes referencing the original tax invoice
- To produce key features of a valid Electronic Tax Invoice including:
- Buyer PIN (PIN of the purchaser): the capture of the buyer’s PIN is optional when generating an invoice and is only applicable where the purchaser intends to claim input tax for the VAT paid
- Control Unit serial number: a unique number issued by KRA to identify each tax register
- Control Unit invoice number: a unique number generated by the tax register upon issuance of each tax invoice
- Quick Response (QR) Code: to confirm the validity of the tax invoice
Source EY
