The P9 is the employer’s certificate of pay and tax for the year: one card per employee, a row for each month from January to December, and totals at the bottom. Your staff need it to file their own returns between 1 January and 30 June. If it disagrees with what you declared on the P10s, they are the ones who hear from KRA first, and you are the one they then call.
What you owe and by when
Every employee you deducted PAYE from during the year, and anyone who received taxable benefits, should get a P9. KRA’s employer guide asks for the cards to be prepared immediately after 31 December. In practice the working deadline is the end of February. For the 2026 tax year that is Sunday 28 February 2027, so aim for Friday the 26th, and earlier if your staff like to file in January.
Staff who left during the year get one too, and they should not have to wait for February. More on that below.
Hand it over in a form they can keep: a signed PDF by email or on your staff portal is normal now. KRA’s guide calls the copy you give the employee a certified copy of the tax deduction card. Keep your own copy with the payroll records for at least five years.
What’s on the card
The 2025 template, used for months from December 2024, has these columns:
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| A, B, C, D | Basic salary, benefits and non-cash pay, value of quarters, and total gross pay |
| E1, E2, E3 | Pension test: 30% of basic, actual contributions (NSSF plus any registered scheme), and the fixed KES 30,000 |
| F | Affordable Housing Levy, employee share |
| G | SHIF |
| H | Post-retirement medical fund, up to KES 15,000 |
| I | Owner-occupied mortgage interest, up to KES 30,000 |
| J | Total deductions: the lowest of E1, E2 and E3, plus F to I |
| K | Chargeable pay, D less J |
| L | Tax charged on K |
| M, N | Personal relief and insurance relief |
| O | PAYE, L less M less N |
Columns F and G are there because SHIF and the employee’s Housing Levy have been deductible before tax since 27 December 2024. A card built on an older layout leaves them out and shows chargeable pay that is too high.
A full year on KES 50,000
An employee on a basic salary of KES 50,000 for all of 2026, with no benefits or other deductions, has the same row every month:
| Column | Monthly | Year |
|---|---|---|
| D gross pay | 50,000.00 | 600,000.00 |
| E2 actual pension (NSSF) | 3,000.00 | 36,000.00 |
| F Housing Levy | 750.00 | 9,000.00 |
| G SHIF | 1,375.00 | 16,500.00 |
| J total deductions | 5,125.00 | 61,500.00 |
| K chargeable pay | 44,875.00 | 538,500.00 |
| L tax charged | 8,245.85 | 98,950.20 |
| M personal relief | 2,400.00 | 28,800.00 |
| O PAYE | 5,845.85 | 70,150.20 |
E2 is the lowest of the three pension figures here, so it’s the one in column J. The year totals of K and O go into the employer box at the foot of the card.
Not every card is this tidy. NSSF Year 4 limits started on 1 February 2026, so for anyone earning above the old upper limit, January’s NSSF and therefore January’s chargeable pay and PAYE will differ from the other eleven months. That’s correct. Don’t overwrite January to make the card look consistent.
Reconcile it to the P10s first
The rule is simple. For each employee and each month, column K should equal the taxable pay you declared on sheet B of that month’s P10, and column O should equal the self-assessed PAYE. Then the twelve monthly PAYE totals across all cards should equal the twelve P10s you filed.
Before issuing, I build a one-page check: P10 PAYE by month down the side, the sum of all P9 column O by month next to it, and the difference. When they don’t match, the cause is usually one of these:
- An amended P10 that never made it into payroll, or a payroll correction that was never filed as an amended P10. Decide which figure is right and fix the other side.
- Off-cycle payments placed in the wrong month. A bonus paid on 2 April belongs in April on both the P10 and the P9, even if it was approved in March.
- Arrears and lump sums for earlier years. These go on sheet C of the P10 and are taxed in the year they relate to, so they won’t appear in this year’s monthly rows the same way. Note them on the card.
- An employee declared without a PIN in row 5 of the P10 tax due sheet and never moved onto sheet B.
Fix the P10s before you issue, not after. If a card goes out and you correct it later, reissue it marked as revised so the employee knows which one to use.
Leavers
KRA’s guide is explicit: when an employee leaves, complete their card up to the date of leaving, including the final payment, and give them a certificate of pay and tax up to that date. Do it with the final dues. They need it to file, and their new employer may ask for it.
Anything you pay them after they’ve left, such as a late commission or a bonus, is taxed without personal relief and added to the card. Re-send it if the totals change.
People who joined during the year simply have blank rows for the months before they started.
Two things that are not your problem, and one that is
The employee’s own return is theirs to file. If they file late, the penalty for an individual is the higher of KES 2,000 or 5% of the tax due. If they have two jobs, each employer issues a P9 and the employee declares both.
What is yours: if the card is wrong because the P10 was wrong, the employee’s return won’t match KRA’s records and the correction runs through your amended returns. That’s why the reconciliation above matters more than the PDF.
On proposed changes: the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026, announced this month, proposes a 0% band on monthly income up to KES 32,333 and abolishing personal relief. It is a proposal, not law, and has no effect on 2026 cards. If it passes, KRA will publish the dates it applies from.
To check any month on a card, run the figures through the free PAYE calculator.