- KRA has waived penalties and interest caused directly by iTax system downtime in September 2026.
- The disruption affected return filing and payment services on Wednesday, September 16.
- KRA will identify penalties linked to the verified period of system inaccessibility before applying the waiver.
- The relief will be implemented under Section 89(5A) of the Tax Procedures Act.
- KRA has apologised to taxpayers for the disruption.
Taxpayers affected by the recent disruption of the Kenya Revenue Authority’s iTax portal will not have to bear penalties and interest directly caused by the system failure.
KRA said it will waive the charges arising from the downtime experienced in September 2026. The disruption affected key services, including the filing of tax returns and processing of payments, leaving some taxpayers unable to complete their obligations normally.
The tax authority said the relief will apply specifically to penalties and interest attributable to the verified period when the affected iTax services were unavailable or intermittently accessible. This means the waiver will be linked to the technical disruption rather than applying broadly to all penalties incurred during the month.
KRA said the decision is intended to take into account the difficulties taxpayers faced while attempting to use the portal.
The disruption was reported by KRA on Wednesday, September 16, when the authority alerted taxpayers about intermittent problems affecting the iTax platform.
According to the authority, the technical problems interfered with normal return filing and payment services. KRA said its technical teams were working to restore the affected services and apologised to taxpayers for the inconvenience.
The portal is widely used by taxpayers to meet their filing and payment obligations, making the disruption particularly significant for people and businesses trying to complete transactions within the required timelines. KRA has now moved to address the possible penalties generated while the system was experiencing the technical difficulties.
How KRA Will Apply the Waiver
KRA said it will first carry out internal system checks to establish which penalties and interest were generated as a direct result of the outage.
The authority will then identify the charges attributable to the verified period of system downtime before applying the waiver. Taxpayers therefore do not need to assume that every penalty appearing on their account during September will automatically be removed.
The process will be undertaken under Section 89(5A) of the Tax Procedures Act, which allows the period during which tax services were unavailable to be considered when dealing with penalties and interest.
KRA said the system processes required to implement the relief will be undertaken after the affected transactions and period of downtime have been verified.
KRA Apologises to Taxpayers
The tax authority acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the technical problems and thanked taxpayers for their patience as the issue was being addressed.
KRA said it remains committed to improving the reliability of its digital services and supporting taxpayers in meeting their compliance obligations.
The waiver provides relief to taxpayers who were unable to complete their filing or payment processes because of the iTax disruption, while KRA continues with the internal review needed to determine the charges directly connected to the outage.
