Since the July 2025 return, every Kenyan employer files PAYE on KRA’s simplified Excel return. It is shorter than the old P10 workbook: one employee sheet instead of separate sheets for cash pay, car benefit, disability and housing levy. It is also stricter, because each employee row works out its own PAYE and compares it with yours.
The return is due by the 9th of the following month, with payment. For the July 2026 payroll that meant 9 August, a Sunday. Don’t assume the weekend moves the date; file on the Friday before.
Get the right template
Download the template from your iTax profile or from kra.go.ke/publications, which also has sample CSV files. Download it fresh each month rather than reusing last year’s copy; in practice an out-of-date template is one of the commoner reasons an upload fails. Open it in desktop Excel with macros enabled; the validation runs on macros and won’t work in a browser or in most alternatives to Excel.
The workbook’s tabs are Read Me, Errors, A_Basic_Info, B_Employees_Dtls_Simplified, then C_Lump_Sum_Payments_Dtls and D_FBT_Dtls if you need them, and E_Tax_Due.
Sheet A: basic information
Enter the employer PIN, the type of return (Original or Amended), head office or branch, and the period from and to, for example 01/07/2026 to 31/07/2026. The last question asks whether you have lump sums, gratuity, arrears or fringe benefit tax to declare. Answer Yes only if you do, because it opens sheets C and D.
Sheet B: one row per employee
This is where most of the work is. Each row takes:
| Column | What goes in |
|---|---|
| PIN, name, resident status | As on the employee’s KRA record |
| Type of employee | Primary (main employment, gets personal relief) or secondary |
| Person with disability | Yes with exemption certificate number, or No |
| Total cash pay (A) | Basic, house, transport and other allowances, overtime, leave pay, director’s fees, all in one figure |
| Car benefit, meals, other non-cash benefits | Values from your payroll; meals and non-cash benefits above KES 5,000 a month are taxed as the template explains |
| Housing benefit, other benefits | Value of quarters and anything else taxable |
| SHIF | 2.75% of gross pay, minimum KES 300, worked out in payroll |
| NSSF and other pension | Employee contributions; the allowable pension deduction is capped at KES 30,000 a month |
| PRMF, mortgage interest | Up to KES 15,000 and KES 30,000 a month |
| Affordable Housing Levy | Employee’s 1.5% of gross pay |
| Personal relief, insurance relief | KES 2,400 for resident primary employees; 15% of premiums, up to KES 5,000 |
| Self-assessed PAYE | The PAYE on your payslip |
The sheet computes taxable pay and PAYE for each row and puts them next to your self-assessed figure. Payroll systems can import a CSV into this sheet instead of typing.
Reconcile before you validate
Total the sheet B columns and compare them with your payroll summary. With three staff on KES 50,000, KES 90,000 and KES 30,000 (no benefits), July 2026 should show:
| Check | Payroll summary | P10 |
|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | 170,000.00 | Total gross pay, sheet B |
| Taxable pay | 152,575.00 | Taxable pay, sheet B |
| PAYE | 23,192.95 | Self-assessed PAYE, sheet B, and row 2 of sheet E |
| Employee Housing Levy | 2,550.00 | Levy column, sheet B |
| Employees | 3 | Row 1 of sheet E |
If the template’s PAYE differs from yours by a few cents, you’re looking at rounding: one side rounding per band, the other at the end. KRA’s guide says to find the cause of any difference and correct it. A difference of more than a shilling usually means a missed allowance, a benefit entered in the wrong column, or personal relief on a secondary employee.
Sheets C and D
Sheet C takes lump sums, gratuity and severance, and arrears relating to earlier periods. Each type has its own options, and arrears need the year and month they relate to. The tax is worked out for the year the money belongs to, not the month you paid it. See bonuses, overtime and arrears.
Sheet D is fringe benefit tax on staff loans below the market rate: loan account number, amount, outstanding balance, your interest rate and the prescribed market rate, both as monthly rates. The sheet calculates the FBT. See FBT on staff loans.
Sheet E: tax due
This sheet fills itself from B, C and D. On our example:
| Row | KES |
|---|---|
| Total employees | 3 |
| PAYE from employees | 23,192.95 |
| Total PAYE payable | 23,192.95 |
| Total Housing Levy (employee and employer shares) | 5,100.00 |
| NITA contributing members | 3 |
| NITA levy at KES 50 each | 150.00 |
| Total payable | 28,442.95 |
Row 5 is for PAYE deducted from employees with no PIN. Use it only as a stopgap: once they have a PIN, amend the return and move them to sheet B. The Housing Levy and NITA totals can be raised to cover staff not on sheet B.
Click Validate. Errors are listed on the Errors tab. When it’s clean, the template asks whether to generate the upload file and saves a zip.
Upload and pay
In iTax, go to Returns, File Return, choose Income Tax - PAYE, then upload the zip, accept the terms and submit. You get an acknowledgement number and a receipt to download; KRA also emails it. Keep it with the payroll file for the month.
Then generate the payment slips under Payments, Payment Registration:
- PAYE under the tax obligation Income Tax - PAYE.
- Housing Levy under the tax head Agency Revenue, sub-head Housing Levy.
- NITA under Agency Revenue as well, on its own slip.
Pay at a KRA partner bank or by M-Pesa to paybill 222222, with the PRN as the account number. PAYE is due by the 9th; the Housing Levy has until the 9th working day, but I pay all three together.
Errors that come up most
- PIN has no income tax obligation. The return won’t accept an employee PIN registered without one. The employee adds the obligation on iTax; it takes them a few minutes. Check new joiners’ PINs during onboarding to avoid this on the 8th.
- Personal relief on a secondary employee. Relief goes only to the primary employment.
- Validation won’t run. Macros are disabled, or the file was opened in protected view. Save it locally and enable content.
- Upload rejected. You uploaded the xlsx instead of the generated zip, or the period on iTax doesn’t match sheet A.
- Duplicate return. A second original for a month already filed. Change the type to Amended and re-file the full month, not only the corrected rows.
Late returns cost at least KES 10,000; see what late filings cost. To check a single employee’s PAYE before you file, use the PAYE calculator.