Since KRA rolled out the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS) as a mandatory requirement for VAT-registered businesses, property managers and landlords in Kenya have had to navigate a new compliance landscape. This guide cuts through the confusion.
eTIMS is the Kenya Revenue Authority's system for electronic tax invoice generation and real-time transmission to KRA. When your business issues an invoice or receipt, eTIMS validates it, assigns a control unit invoice number (CUIN), and transmits the data to KRA's servers. The goal: eliminate ghost invoices, stop VAT fraud, and create a real-time audit trail of every taxable transaction.
For property managers, this means every invoice you issue — rent, utilities, service charges — must be generated through an eTIMS-compliant system if you are VAT-registered or meet the turnover threshold.
eTIMS currently applies to VAT-registered taxpayers. You are required to register for VAT if your annual taxable turnover exceeds KES 5 million. For a portfolio of rental properties, this threshold is reached quickly:
If you are below the threshold, eTIMS is not yet mandatory — but KRA has signalled an intention to bring all businesses into the system over time. Getting compliant now is the right strategic move.
Important: Residential rental income is exempt from VAT in Kenya. However, service charges, parking fees, and commercial rental income are taxable supplies. If your portfolio includes any commercial element, you likely need to be eTIMS-compliant.
You must use software that has been approved by KRA to generate eTIMS invoices. The software integrates with KRA's API, validates each invoice in real time, and embeds the CUIN on the document. A handwritten receipt or Excel-generated invoice is not compliant.
Every eTIMS invoice must include: your PIN, the buyer's PIN (for B2B transactions), invoice number, date, itemised description of goods or services, VAT amount, and the KRA-assigned CUIN. Missing any of these fields makes the invoice non-compliant and the input VAT on that transaction unclaimed by your tenant.
The invoice data must be transmitted to KRA at the time of issuance — not at month-end, not at filing time. Real-time means within minutes of the invoice being generated. This is why you need software that is always connected and integrated with the KRA API.
You must retain all eTIMS invoice records for a minimum of 5 years and be able to produce them on demand during a KRA audit. Cloud-based property management software handles this automatically.
Property managers deal with high transaction volumes — monthly rent invoices across 20, 50 or 200 units, plus utility billing, service charges and ad-hoc invoices. Generating each of these manually through the KRA eTIMS portal is not operationally realistic. The only viable approach is a property management system with eTIMS built in as core infrastructure.
TenancyFlow by JATES has KRA eTIMS compliance built into its core billing engine. Here is what happens when a tenant pays rent:
The same flow applies to utility invoices and service charges. The property manager never has to log into the KRA eTIMS portal manually — compliance is automatic.
One of our clients' key requirements: "We need every receipt to be KRA-compliant. We've had audits before and we cannot afford gaps in our receipting." TenancyFlow went live for them within 48 hours — every transaction since has been eTIMS-compliant.
KRA penalties for non-compliant invoicing can be significant — including denial of input VAT claims, penalties of up to KES 1 million, and potential prosecution for serial offenders. For a property manager issuing hundreds of invoices per month, the risk compounds quickly. The cost of compliant software is a small fraction of one month's penalty exposure.
TenancyFlow handles your rent billing, utility invoicing and KRA eTIMS compliance automatically. Book a free demo and see it live.
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