Kenya Revenue Authority has directed all taxpayers conducting businesses to onboard on the electronic Tax Invoice Management System (e-TIMS).

The new directive includes those businesses not registered for VAT.In a notice to the public, the taxman will now require them to electronically generate and transmit their invoices to KRA through the eTIMS platform.

KRA maintains that it will bar any business not supported by a valid electronic tax invoice from transacting in the country.

"To facilitate business continuity and allow for sufficient time for taxpayers to make adjustments in their systems and business operations, KRA wishes to notify non-VAT registered taxpayers that onboarding to the Etims platform will be available up to 32 March 2024," read the notice by the taxman in part.

KRA adds that it will not impose penalties provided in law on non-VAT registered taxpayers during the onboarding process.

It has added that taxpayers will be required to progressively capture manually generated invoices and receipts issued after January 1 2024 upto the date of onboarding onto the taxman's systems.

Government had in 2020 introduced e-TIMS in the country following the gazettement of the VAT (Regulations, 2020, which replaced the electronic tax register in force since 2005.

The rules also specified the information that must be included on an electronic tax invoice, such as a quick response (QR) code, a unique register identifier (control unit serial number), a unique invoice identifier (control unit invoice number), and an optional buyer pin.