KRA Extends Office Hours for the Tax Returns Rush, But Filing Online Is Still Faster

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has extended working hours across its service centres, contact centre and selected Huduma Centres to help taxpayers file their annual income tax returns before the 30 June 2026 deadline.

The change is simple and practical. KRA offices normally run from 8am to 5pm. For the final filing stretch, service centres open from 7am to 7pm on weekdays through 26 June, and on the deadline day they stay open from 7am to midnight. Service centres also open on Saturday 20 and Saturday 27 June from 9am to 1pm, and stay closed on Sundays.

Selected Huduma Centres are running the same extended 7am to 7pm weekday window, while the rest keep their normal 8am to 5pm hours. All Huduma Centres remain closed at weekends. The branches roped in for extended service sit in the main towns, including Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, Meru, Kiambu and Kisumu.

The contact centre is where most last-minute help happens, since you can call or chat without leaving home. It ran until 10pm on weekdays from 17 to 19 June, then shifts to 7am to midnight from 22 to 30 June, with weekend phone and digital support on Saturday 20 and Saturday 27 June from 9am to 4pm. You can reach it on 0711 099 999 or 020 4 999 999, or email callcentre@kra.go.ke.

Why the push

Every Kenyan with a KRA PIN must file a return for the 2025 year of income, even with no income to declare, in which case you file a nil return. Miss the deadline and the penalty for an individual is KES 2,000 or 5% of the tax due, whichever is higher. For companies and other non-individuals it rises to KES 20,000 or 5% of tax due, whichever is greater. Unpaid tax then attracts a further 5% penalty plus 1% interest every month until it is cleared.

There is a reason the queues form. KRA has roughly 22 million registered PIN holders, but only about 7 million file and pay actively, so the system strains each June as millions try to beat the clock at once. We already covered how the iTax portal buckled under that load at last year’s deadline, forcing KRA to push filing into early July. The extended hours are partly an attempt to spread the rush out rather than let it pile onto 30 June.

What is different this year

Filing in 2026 is not the copy-and-paste exercise it used to be. Since 1 January 2026, KRA validates the income and expenses you declare against third-party data, including eTIMS electronic invoices, withholding tax records and customs import data. Many returns now arrive prepopulated, with income KRA already knows about filled in before you open the form. The authority flagged more than 392,000 taxpayers who filed nil returns despite having tax withheld from their earnings. We already explained that 2025 nil returns could only be filed after 31 March, once those checks were switched on. In plain terms, deleting income to file nil is far harder now, and a mismatch can trigger immediate review rather than a later audit.

KRA is also leaning on Shuru, its WhatsApp chatbot, to take pressure off both the portal and the queues. You save the official number 0711 099 999, send “Hi”, verify with your ID or PIN and a one-time password, then file from the chat. Shuru handles nil returns, employment returns, payments, PIN checks, eTIMS invoices and compliance certificates. For a salaried person with a single P9, it is often the fastest route.

Looking ahead

The single 30 June deadline may not survive much longer. In the 2026/27 budget, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi proposed staggered deadlines: nil returns within one month of year-end, salaried filers within four months, and all other taxpayers still by 30 June. Those are proposals tied to the Finance Bill 2026, not the rule for this season. For the 2025 returns due now, the deadline stays 30 June 2026 for everyone.

The practical takeaway is straightforward. You do not need to visit an office or wait for the last day. Log in at itax.kra.go.ke or open Shuru on WhatsApp, file, and save the acknowledgement receipt as proof. The extended hours are there if you need a person to walk you through it, but the surest way to avoid the penalty is to file early and online.