According to a statement from the KRA Commissioner General, all VAT-registered businesses will be required to only accept electronic invoices from registered taxpayers starting June 1 2023.
The move complies with the VAT (Electronic Tax Invoice) Regulations 2020 to claim input tax and process refunds.
The Commissioner General noted that VAT-registered taxpayers who have not complied with the requirement by June 1 will only be issued tax compliance certificates if they comply.
“VAT refunds shall be only processed and paid for taxpayers who are compliant with the Regulations,” read the statement.
This requirement exempts registered non-resident suppliers of digital services.
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The non-resident digital service suppliers are, however, required to issue invoices or receipts showing the value of the supply and the tax charged.
The deadline comes as the Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) continues with the rollout of the electronic Tax Invoice Management System(eTIMS), which seeks to ensure that all VAT-registered taxpayers generate electronic tax invoices transmitted to KRA on a real-time basis.
Through integration with eTIMS, businesses will benefit from real-time invoice transmission providing accuracy in tax invoice declarations and reconciliation between filed returns and payments.
KRA is banking on the platform to fully address the issue of missing trader invoices and the issue of fictitious claims, as all transactions will be visible to the taxman.
The taxman seeks to collect an additional Kes400 billion in VAT from the platform.
