The records KRA will ask a car owner for — and how long to keep them (2026)

If KRA ever questions your return, the argument is not about what you earned — it is about what you can prove. Under the Tax Procedures Act the burden is on you to show an assessment is wrong, and tax tribunals keep ruling against taxpayers who cannot produce the documents. For a car owner the records are simple, but they have to exist.

A plain-language guide, not tax advice. Your accountant or KRA has the last word on your situation.

How long to keep them: five years

Section 23 of the Tax Procedures Act requires you to keep records for five years from the end of the year they relate to. Records for 2026 are kept until the end of 2031. The period runs longer if you amend a return or are in a dispute with KRA — keep everything until it is settled.

The big change: no eTIMS invoice, no deduction

Since the Finance Act 2023, an expense can only be deducted if it is backed by an eTIMS (or TIMS) invoice carrying your KRA PIN — with exceptions such as wages, imports, interest, bank charges and payments already taxed by final withholding tax. From the 2026 year of income, KRA validates the income and expenses on your return against eTIMS data, so a missing invoice is not just a weak claim: it is disallowed.

For a car owner that means asking, every time:

• The garage and the spare-parts shop — an eTIMS invoice with your PIN on it, not a handwritten receipt.
• Tyres, service, car wash contracts — the same.
• Insurance — keep the policy schedule and the insurer's invoice.
• Fuel, if you pay for it — the station's eTIMS receipt with your PIN.

If a supplier cannot give you an eTIMS invoice, assume that cost will not be deductible.

What to keep for each car

Income: make the till the only door

KRA reconciles what you declare with what it can see — bank and M-Pesa records included. The cleanest position is that every shilling from a driver lands in your own till, never as cash or into a relative's phone. Then your till statement is your income record, and it matches what KRA sees.

Keep a separate till or account for the cars, too. Mixing the car income with household money makes both harder to prove.

Turnover tax or income tax

What you keep depends a little on how you are taxed:

• Turnover tax (1.5%) — taxed on takings, so expenses do not reduce the tax. You still need the income records, and the expense records if you ever opt out.
• Income tax on profit — every expense you claim needs its invoice.

Check which applies to you with the turnover tax calculator.

Keeping it without effort

The record that takes most work by hand is the day-by-day one: which car owed what, on which day, and which M-Pesa payment paid it. Gariboss builds it as it happens — payments into your own till matched to the day and the car, rest and garage days marked, a running balance per driver — so the record your accountant needs already exists.