The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) announced on September 21, 2026, that its iTax online portal is fully operational again after weeks of intermittent outages. The outages disrupted tax filing and payment services for millions of registered taxpayers across Kenya. The authority confirmed the restoration through a post on its official X account, stating that taxpayers can now file and pay their taxes via iTax. The KRA also thanked taxpayers for their patience and understanding during the outage.
The timing of the disruptions proved particularly damaging, coinciding with the September 20 statutory deadline for filing August Value Added Tax returns. Many taxpayers were unable to submit their returns due to the system failure. The KRA first acknowledged the technical fault on September 16, advising users to try again later while its technical teams worked to fix the problem. The disruptions followed scheduled maintenance exercises earlier in September.
To address the fallout, the KRA announced a waiver of penalties and interest that accrued directly as a result of the system downtime during September 2026. The measure is being implemented under Section 89(5A) of the Tax Procedures Act, which provides a legal basis for reversing penalties arising from electronic system failures. The waiver will cover only those penalties and interest attributable to verified periods when iTax services were unavailable or intermittently inaccessible.
The KRA specified that it will carry out the necessary system processes to identify and reverse charges on affected taxpayer accounts. This waiver is separate from the annual Tax Amnesty Programme, which runs from July 1 to December 31, 2026, and covers qualifying penalties and interest on liabilities due up to December 31, 2025. Taxpayers who pay their principal tax in full may qualify for a complete waiver of accumulated penalties and interest until December 31, 2026.
The latest outage has renewed scrutiny of the iTax system's overall dependability. One social media user described the platform as "on and off even for simple functionalities," adding that it had been "a total disappointment since April 2026." The KRA manages a database of over eight million registered taxpayers through the platform and has previously indicated plans to replace iTax with a new web-based system designed to handle high traffic during peak filing seasons with greater stability.
The authority announced new deadlines for filing individual income tax returns, moving the standard deadline to April 30 and requiring taxpayers filing nil returns to submit by January 31. The Finance Act 2026 has also revived a tax amnesty covering obligations incurred up to December 31, 2025. This move aims to provide relief to taxpayers and encourage compliance with tax regulations.
The KRA's restoration of iTax services and waiver of penalties aim to mitigate the impact of the outages on taxpayers. The authority's efforts to address the issues and provide relief to affected taxpayers have been noted, but questions remain about the reliability of the iTax platform. The KRA will continue to work to improve the system's stability and functionality to prevent similar disruptions in the future.
Key points
- KRA restores iTax services after weeks of outages
- Waiver of penalties and interest for affected taxpayers
- New deadlines for filing individual income tax returns announced
