- KRA is using digital systems to identify landlords whose rental income declarations may be incomplete.
- Geolocation mapping is expected to strengthen property tracking and tax compliance.
- The crackdown comes as the government steps up efforts to close revenue collection gaps.
More than one million landlords in Kenya are under the taxman’s spotlight after the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) reportedly identified property owners suspected of concealing rental earnings and failing to declare the income for tax purposes.
The development exposes a potential tax compliance gap in the property sector, where landlords collect rent from tenants but may not disclose the earnings to the government. KRA is now turning to digital surveillance to uncover undeclared rental income and bring suspected non compliant property owners into the tax system.
The details emerged on October 28, 2026, during submissions to the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning. There, the authority outlined how technology is helping it identify landlords whose property records do not match their rental income declarations.
At the centre of the operation is the Electronic Rental Income Tax System (eRITS), launched in April 2025. It helps KRA detect discrepancies between property ownership information, tenant records and income declared for tax purposes. The system is designed to integrate with the eCitizen portal and KRA’s database, allowing the authority to cross check information and flag property owners whose rental earnings may have gone undeclared.
KRA is also working towards introducing geolocation mapping. The technology would strengthen its ability to identify properties and link them to their owners.
The emerging picture is that some landlords may have continued collecting rental income without bringing it to the taxman’s attention. However, being flagged by the digital system does not automatically prove tax evasion. Individual cases must be verified against the law and the taxpayer’s actual circumstances.
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The digital system gives KRA a way to spot gaps between property records and tax declarations that might previously have escaped scrutiny. A landlord whose property appears in ownership records, but whose rental earnings are not reflected in tax declarations, may attract the authority’s attention. By comparing information from different databases, KRA can investigate whether rental income has been omitted, underreported or otherwise improperly accounted for.
The planned use of geolocation technology could make it harder for property owners to keep rental investments outside the authority’s radar. The enforcement drive therefore signals a shift from relying heavily on voluntary declarations towards using digital records to identify suspected non compliance.
Meanwhile, resident landlords earning gross residential rental income of between Ksh 288,000 and Ksh 15 million annually are generally subject to the simplified residential rental income tax regime. The applicable rate is 7.5 per cent of gross rental income, effective from January 2024.
Under this arrangement, qualifying landlords declare their gross rental earnings without deducting expenses or losses. Returns and payments are generally due by the 20th day of the following month. For instance, a landlord collecting Ksh 100,000 monthly in qualifying rental income would ordinarily owe Ksh 7,500 in tax under this regime. Landlords earning outside the applicable thresholds may be subject to different tax arrangements, depending on their circumstances.
The operation comes as the government intensifies efforts to increase tax collections and recover revenue lost through evasion and other forms of non compliance. The National Treasury has set KRA an ordinary revenue collection target of Ksh 2.98 trillion for the 2026/2027 financial year, against projected total government revenue of Ksh 3.63 trillion.
The authority has cited illicit trade, counterfeiting and tax evasion among the sources of substantial revenue losses. Rental income is among the areas receiving increased attention.
By Hillary Muhalya
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