On 4 September 2026 the Kenya Revenue Authority published a notice, signed by the Commissioner for Micro and Small Taxpayers, telling businesses that use TIMS and eTIMS to maintain accurate and up-to-date stock records. The records must account for goods as they move through the business: purchased or received, sold, transferred, returned, adjusted or otherwise disposed of. KRA said it is implementing a stock management functionality for electronic invoicing and would hold consultative forums with the business community, expected to begin in September 2026.
This is an old rule with new attention
As tech-ish pointed out, the obligation is not new. Regulation 4(3)(c) of the Tax Procedures (Electronic Tax Invoice) Regulations, 2024, in force since 28 March 2024, already requires users to maintain stock-in and stock-out records in the system, to log every local purchase and import, and to give the Commissioner written notice of current stock 30 days before closing a business. What the September notice signals is that KRA intends to make the stock module an operating part of invoicing rather than a feature most traders ignore.
The numbers around it explain why. The same report cites 750,915 taxpayers on eTIMS as at 30 June 2026, and notes that since 1 January 2026 expenses without a valid eTIMS invoice can be disallowed. A tax authority that can see every sale and every purchase invoice can also compute what should be on your shelves. Stock records are how it checks.
The penalties
Records must be kept for five years. Failure can attract fines of up to KES 2 million for a company, together with estimated assessments and agency notices on bank accounts. The practical danger for a small shop is less the fine than the estimated assessment: if KRA reconstructs your stock from invoices and finds more sold than bought, the gap is treated as undeclared income.
Which eTIMS solution you use matters
KRA lists several solutions. eTIMS Lite, by USSD on *222#, web through eCitizen or the mobile app, is aimed at individuals and sole proprietors with few transactions. eTIMS Client is downloadable software that supports multiple branches and cashier tills. For businesses with their own invoicing system there is system-to-system integration through a VSCU or OSCU. Taxpayers may now register on more than one solution, each with its own invoice number sequence, and credit notes can only be raised from the solution that issued the original invoice. The open question tech-ish flagged is whether USSD users will face the same stock standard as eTIMS Client users; the forums should answer that.
What to do now
- Start a stock ledger today, even on paper or a spreadsheet, if you have none. Opening stock, every purchase, every sale, every adjustment, with dates. The regulation asks for the record; the system to hold it is being built.
- Match purchases to eTIMS invoices. Every delivery should have a supplier eTIMS invoice; file it against the goods-received entry.
- Count stock monthly and record the adjustment. Shrinkage, breakages and expiry are legitimate "otherwise disposed of" entries if they are written down when they happen.
- Keep transfers between branches visible. Goods moving from one shop to another are not a sale and should not look like one.
- Attend the forums. KRA has invited the business community; the stock module's rules will be shaped by who turns up.
The upside
A shop that already knows its stock position each morning has nothing to fear from this notice and quite a lot to gain. The same record that satisfies KRA tells you what to reorder, which lines are dying, and where the difference between what you bought and what you sold actually went.
Sources
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