eTIMS and Selling Online in Kenya: What Your Website Can and Cannot Do

It comes up at the same point in nearly every online shop project. The payments work, the products are loaded, somebody is about to launch, and then a question: "what about eTIMS? Does the website do that?"

The short answer is that your website almost certainly does not do it, and that this is a tax question rather than a web question. But there is a lot of confusing advice in circulation, including guides that flatly contradict each other on who has to comply at all, so it is worth setting out what KRA itself says and where the website genuinely comes into it.

What KRA Actually Says About Who Must Comply

This is where most of the confusion lives. Some guides say eTIMS is only for VAT registered businesses. Others say businesses turning over under five million shillings need not bother. KRA's own page on eTIMS is not ambiguous about it:

The same page spells out that this is not a VAT only matter. Under "Why is it not just for VAT registered taxpayers?" it states: "Therefore, ALL persons engaged in business are required to issue electronic tax invoices."

And its list of who counts as being in business is broad. It names companies, partnerships and sole proprietorships, people with income tax obligations including monthly rental income and turnover tax, and "Persons conducting business in various sectors, including the informal sector." It then adds a category that catches a lot of people who assumed they were outside this:

So when you read a guide saying small or non VAT registered businesses are outside eTIMS, hold it up against that. We are not going to tell you what your obligation is, but we can tell you that the regulator's own wording is "all persons engaged in business", and that any advice contradicting it deserves a second source.

The Small Business Rule Is Not an Exemption

There is a rule about small suppliers, and it is frequently misread as an exemption. KRA's wording is:

Read what that does. It moves who issues the invoice, from the seller to the buyer. It does not say the small seller is outside eTIMS. KRA describes a Buyer Initiated Invoicing Solution on the eCitizen platform for exactly this situation.

In practice that matters commercially even if it did not matter legally, because it means your business customers have a mechanism and a reason to handle your invoice themselves, and they will know about it even if you do not.

What KRA's Page Does Not Say

This is the part we think is most useful, and the part no guide seems to state plainly. We read KRA's eTIMS page in full on 7 November 2026. It does not mention online sales, e-commerce, marketplaces, websites or payment platforms anywhere.

There are two ways to read a silence, and only one of them is safe.

• The unsafe reading: online sales are not addressed, so they are not covered.
• The safe reading: the rules are written around being in business, not around how the sale reaches you, so there is no carve out for selling through a website.
• What follows either way: do not assume your shop is special. A sale is a sale whether it arrives through a counter, a WhatsApp message or a checkout page.

We also could not confirm from KRA's own page how card, mobile money or platform payments are handled for invoicing, or the detail of any route involving a payment platform. That is a real gap, and the honest thing to do is name it rather than fill it with a guess. Ask KRA or your accountant, not an article.

Why Your Buyers Will Ask You Anyway

Even where your own position is unclear, your customers' position may not be. KRA's page puts it like this: "The law requires that for any person to claim their business expense, the expense must be supported by an electronic tax invoice as at 1st January 2024."

So if you sell to businesses, your invoice is part of their deduction. That is why a B2B customer will ask you for a proper tax invoice regardless of what you believe about your own obligations, and why "we are too small for that" tends to cost you the sale rather than win the argument. If you sell only to consumers the pressure is lower, but the rule about who must onboard does not change.

Four Things That Are Not Tax Invoices

This is where websites create false comfort. Your shop probably already sends the customer something that looks official. None of these is an electronic tax invoice.

The distinction is simple once you see it. All four are produced entirely inside systems you or your plugin vendor control. An electronic tax invoice involves KRA's system. Nothing your website generates on its own can be that, however it is labelled.

Where the Website Genuinely Comes In

Having said what a website cannot do, here is what it can, and what we build when a client needs it.

If you are at the stage of wiring payments up at all, our notes on integrating M-Pesa with a Kenyan website and on payment gateway integration cover the part we can speak about with authority.

Three Questions to Settle Before You Launch

Do not let this hold up a launch, but do not launch without asking them either.

1. Ask your accountant what your own obligation is. Give them the actual facts: what you sell, to whom, your turnover, whether you are VAT registered. This is the only question that genuinely settles your position, and it is not a question for your web developer.
2. Ask whoever processes your payments or runs your marketplace whether they do anything about eTIMS on your behalf. Ask for a yes or a no in writing. Assuming a platform handles it is a common and expensive assumption.
3. Ask what your invoicing system needs from the website. Once you know where invoices will come from, we can make the shop hand that system clean data. That sequence is the right way round, and doing it in reverse is how shops end up with a plugin nobody can account for.

For KRA's current guidance, go to kra.go.ke rather than to any summary, including this one. Pages and processes change, and the regulator's own words are the only ones worth planning around.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my online shop have to issue eTIMS invoices in Kenya?

KRA's own eTIMS page says "All persons engaged in business are required to on-board eTIMS and issue electronic tax invoices", and separately that this applies to persons in business whether or not they are registered for VAT. The rules are written around being in business rather than around how a sale reaches you, and KRA's page does not mention online sales, e-commerce or marketplaces at all, so there is no visible carve out for selling through a website. Your own obligation is a question for your accountant or KRA, not for a web developer. We build shops and payment integrations and are not tax advisers.

Is eTIMS only for VAT registered businesses?

KRA's page addresses this directly under the heading "Why is it not just for VAT registered taxpayers?" and states "Therefore, ALL persons engaged in business are required to issue electronic tax invoices." Its list of persons in business expressly includes those not required to register for VAT, giving hospitals supplying medical services, schools supplying education services, tours and travel agents and NGOs in business as examples. Some online guides say the opposite. Where a guide contradicts the regulator's own wording, get a second source before relying on it.

Is a business under five million shillings turnover exempt from eTIMS?

That is a common misreading of a real rule. KRA says that where a supply is received from a small business enterprise whose annual turnover does not exceed five million shillings, the purchaser shall issue a tax invoice on their behalf. That moves who issues the invoice from the seller to the buyer; it does not say the small seller is outside eTIMS. KRA describes a Buyer Initiated Invoicing Solution on the eCitizen platform for this situation. Confirm your own position with your accountant.

Is my order confirmation email or M-Pesa message a tax invoice?

No. An order confirmation is a record that your own website accepted an order. An M-Pesa confirmation is proof from Safaricom that money moved, which is a payment receipt rather than a tax document about a supply. A WooCommerce or Shopify PDF labelled invoice is a document your shop formatted and named, and the label on a template does not make it a tax invoice. All of those are produced inside systems you or your plugin vendor control, whereas an electronic tax invoice involves KRA's system. Nothing your website generates by itself can be one.

Can you build eTIMS into my WooCommerce site?

We can build the parts a website is actually responsible for: collecting a business buyer's details at checkout rather than chasing them later, flagging orders that need an invoice, keeping clean records of what was sold and refunded, and passing orders to whatever system issues your invoices if it offers a way in. What we will not do is label your order email a tax invoice, because that creates a problem rather than solving one. The right order is to settle with your accountant where invoices will come from, then we make the shop feed that system properly.

Why do my business customers keep asking for a tax invoice?

Because it affects their own tax position, not just yours. KRA's page states that the law requires an expense to be supported by an electronic tax invoice as at 1st January 2024 for a person to claim it as a business expense. So a business buyer needs a valid invoice from you to deduct what they paid. That is why B2B customers press for one regardless of what you believe about your own obligations, and why declining tends to cost the sale rather than win the argument.