Large multinational companies in Kenya have until Tuesday 17th November 2026 to tell the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) that a new 15% minimum tax covers them. The date comes from regulations published on 18th September 2026, which give them 60 days to notify KRA in writing.
It’s called the minimum top-up tax. It covers groups with worldwide revenue of EUR 750 million or more, or about KES 109 billion at KES 145.91 to the euro on 5th November 2026, in at least two of the previous four years.
Notifying isn’t paying. All a company does by 17th November is tell KRA it’s covered. The regulations don’t set out a form for this, and there’s nothing on the deadline on KRA’s public notices page.
Are Google and Microsoft really affected?
The regulations don’t name any company. Google and Microsoft are on a list of firms potentially affected, next to Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Unilever and DHL Express, but that list doesn’t come from the law.
Both are big enough. Alphabet, Google’s parent, had revenue of USD 402.8 billion in 2025. Microsoft had revenue of USD 331.8 billion in the year to June 2026.
But revenue alone doesn’t put a company in. Section 12G of the Income Tax Act only covers a group member that’s resident in Kenya or has a permanent establishment here, which means a fixed base such as a branch. Google has a Kenyan subsidiary, Google Kenya Limited. Microsoft said last month that it “will continue operating in the country”, when staff at its Nairobi development centre were told their jobs were going. So we think both are covered. Neither has said so publicly.
A foreign company selling to Kenyans with no base here isn’t covered at all. That one falls under the Significant Economic Presence Tax, which we explained in July, at 3% of what it earns from Kenyan users.
Kenyan groups aren’t exempt, though. A multinational group means any group with a unit outside its parent’s home country. So a Kenyan-headquartered group with foreign subsidiaries counts if it crosses the revenue line.
If you’re only a customer, this is a tax on a company’s Kenyan profit, so no new charge lands on your Google or Microsoft receipt. Whether a company builds the cost into its prices is up to the company, and none has said.
Why Kenya has this tax
Big groups can move profit to countries where tax is low. A subsidiary in a low-tax country can charge its sister companies for the brand or the software, so the profit ends up where it costs least. That’s why countries negotiating through the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) agreed in 2021 on a 15% floor. If a group pays less than that in one country, the difference can be collected.
And if Kenya doesn’t collect it, another country might. Weldon Ng’eno, KRA’s Commissioner for Large and Medium Taxpayers, said as much in March: “If tax is not collected in Kenya, another jurisdiction may collect it.” That risk is why Kenya wrote its own version into law through the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024, and it collects the difference here first.
In January this year, an OECD package allowed US-headquartered groups to opt out of the rules that let other countries top up their tax. It left domestic taxes like Kenya’s in place, and Ng’eno’s position in March was that the agreement “does not affect Kenya’s domestic taxing rights”. So being American doesn’t take Google or Microsoft out of the Kenyan rule.
How the tax works
Whether a covered unit owes depends on the rate of tax on profit in Kenya. Kenya’s normal corporate rate is 30%. So a unit paying that on its Kenyan profit is well above 15%, however small the profit is. The tax also doesn’t touch profit a group has already booked in another country. So a low declared profit in Kenya isn’t what triggers it.
The companies we’d expect to fall short are the ones on tax incentives. A company in an export processing zone pays 0% for its first 10 years, and one in a special economic zone pays 10%. Adjustments to the accounts can also push a rate down. Deferred tax is one, which is tax booked now but paid in a different year.
Even then, the 15% doesn’t apply to all the profit. The law sets aside a slice based on real activity in Kenya: what the unit spends on staff, and what it owns in equipment and buildings. Under the regulations’ schedule, that slice for a year starting in 2026 is 9.4% of payroll plus 7.4% of the value of tangible assets. It falls to 5% each from 2033.
Say a large group’s Kenyan unit sits in a special economic zone and makes KES 500 million in profit in 2026. It pays 10% tax, or KES 50 million. Its payroll is KES 300 million and its assets are worth KES 200 million, so KES 43 million of profit is set aside. That leaves KES 457 million. The unit is 5 percentage points short of 15%, so it owes about KES 23 million on top. Put the same unit on the normal 30% and it pays KES 150 million in ordinary tax and no top-up.
That’s simplified, because the real calculation adjusts the accounts first. Many groups may not need it anyway. For years starting before 1st July 2029, a temporary shortcut called a safe harbour lets them check their Kenyan rate with simpler figures from a country-by-country report, which big groups already prepare. They pass if the simplified rate reaches 16% for a year starting in 2025 or 17% for one starting in 2026, or if profit is no bigger than the set-aside slice. Pass, and there’s no top-up that year. So we’d expect plenty of companies to notify KRA and owe nothing.
The 2025 payment date had already passed
The tax applies to years from 1st January 2025. For a company that was already covered on 27th December 2024 and whose year started on 1st January 2025, the regulations say the 2025 tax “was due on or before the 30th April, 2026”. Which is 141 days before the rules on how to calculate it were published. The company’s return would have been due by 30th June 2026, under the regulations’ six-month rule.
Advisers at the law firm Bowmans said in April that companies were unlikely to be able to comply without the rules. Still, the regulations contain no waiver. Under the Tax Procedures Act, late tax carries a 5% penalty plus interest of 1% a month. KRA hasn’t said publicly whether it will charge those on tax due before the rules were published. Breaking the regulations, including missing the notification, is also an offence.
What happens after 17th November
KRA will have a list of who’s in, which won’t say who owes. For a December year-end company, the 2026 tax is due by 30th April 2027 and the return by 30th June 2027.
Funny thing is, this tax also cuts into Kenya’s own incentives. The country offers 0% and 10% rates to attract investors into its zones. This tax takes part of that back from the largest groups by lifting them towards 15%, while smaller companies keep the full benefit. KRA says it studied how the tax would interact with those incentives before the law passed. We’ll only see what that costs the zones once payments come in.
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