As of July 2026, KRA matches every expense you declare against eTIMS records line by line. If a supplier bill has no valid eTIMS invoice behind it, that expense can be disallowed — so you pay income tax on money you already spent.
The money still left your account. You paid for the paper, the vinyl, the ink. But if the record isn’t there, KRA can treat the expense as though it never happened — and tax you on it.
For a print shop, this lands harder than it does for most businesses. Your cost base is mostly materials, bought in volume, often from suppliers who are informal about paperwork. A single quarter of substrate purchases with thin records is a real amount of money.
This isn’t a reason to panic. It’s a reason to spend twenty minutes going through your supplier file. Here’s the check I’d run.
The 5-minute check: pull your last 10 supplier bills
Take your last ten supplier bills and run each one past the five questions below. Any bill that fails one is worth a second look.
1. Is there a bill at all?
An M-Pesa confirmation SMS is proof you paid. It is not a tax invoice. If the only record of a purchase is a payment message, that expense has nothing supporting it, and as of July 2026, nothing supporting it means it can be disallowed.
2. Does it carry the supplier’s KRA PIN?
No supplier PIN, no way for KRA to match the bill to anything in the system. A valid eTIMS invoice carries the PIN of the business that issued it.
3. Does it carry *your* KRA PIN?
An invoice made out to nobody in particular is difficult to claim as yours. The bill should name your business and your PIN as the buyer.
4. Does it show an eTIMS control number or QR code?
This is the part that tells you the invoice was actually generated through the eTIMS system rather than typed into a template. A handwritten receipt book and a Word document both fail here, however genuine the purchase was.
5. Do the numbers reconcile?
Description, quantity, unit price, VAT and total should agree with each other — and with what you actually paid. Small mismatches are exactly what line-by-line validation is built to catch.
The four places print shops usually come unstuck
Across ten years on Nairobi print floors, the gaps almost always show up in the same four places.
Cash purchases from the small supplier. The emergency roll of vinyl bought on Kirinyaga Road at 4 pm because a job was about to stall. Fast, informal, and almost never invoiced properly.
The supplier who isn’t on eTIMS yet. Their problem becomes your problem, because it’s *your* deduction that gets disallowed. Worth asking directly — before the next order, not after.
Bills that never reach the file. Someone on the floor accepts a delivery, the paperwork goes in a drawer or a pocket, and by month-end it’s gone. This is a process gap more than a tax one.
Payment and invoice never get matched. You have the M-Pesa message in one place and the invoice in another, and nothing connects them to the job the material went into.
What to do this week
– Ask your three biggest suppliers, plainly, whether they’re issuing eTIMS invoices. If any say no, you have a decision to make about that supplier.
– Set one rule on the floor: no delivery is accepted without paperwork, and the paperwork goes to one place.
– Go back through last quarter and find the gaps while they’re still recent enough to chase.
– Talk to your accountant about what’s already been claimed against records that wouldn’t survive a check.
Where PrintFlow fits
PrintFlow keeps supplier and invoice records structured for eTIMS from the start, rather than as something bolted on afterwards — so the record exists at the moment you receive the material, attached to the job it belongs to, instead of being reconstructed at year-end.
It won’t file your taxes, and it won’t make a non-compliant supplier compliant. What it does is make sure that when a bill arrives, it gets captured properly, against the right job, with the details that need to be there.
If you want to see how that works on your own supplier list, I’m happy to walk you through it — about twenty minutes.
**→ [Message me on WhatsApp](https://wa.me/+254731808276)** and I’ll take a look at your records with you.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean for an expense to be “disallowed” by KRA?
A disallowed expense is a cost you actually paid but can’t deduct, because there’s no valid eTIMS invoice to support it. As of July 2026, KRA validates declared expenses line by line against eTIMS records, so an unsupported expense can be treated as if it never happened — and taxed accordingly.
Is an M-Pesa message enough proof of a business expense?
No. An M-Pesa confirmation proves payment, but it is not a tax invoice. As of July 2026, an expense supported only by a payment SMS can be disallowed because there’s no valid eTIMS invoice behind it.
What makes a supplier invoice eTIMS-compliant?
As of July 2026, a compliant supplier invoice is generated through eTIMS and carries the supplier’s KRA PIN, your KRA PIN, an eTIMS control number or QR code, and line items that reconcile. Confirm the exact required fields against a current KRA notice, as specifications can change.
What happens if my supplier isn’t on eTIMS?
The risk lands on you: it’s your deduction that gets disallowed, not theirs. Ask your suppliers directly whether they issue eTIMS invoices before your next order, and decide accordingly.
Does PrintFlow file my taxes or make my supplier compliant?
No. PrintFlow keeps your supplier and invoice records eTIMS-ready at the point material arrives, attached to the right job. It doesn’t file returns, and it can’t make a non-compliant supplier compliant.
General guidance for print and branding businesses, current to July 2026. Not tax or legal advice — tax rules change with each Finance Act, so confirm your own position with your accountant or against a current KRA public notice.