Kenya Residential Rental Income Tax Calculator

Background.

A landlord in Kasarani collects KSh 120,000 a month from three flats and wants to know what goes to KRA by the 20th. Under Kenya's residential rental income tax — still called MRI, for monthly rental income, by most landlords and agents — the answer is KSh 9,000: 7.5% of the rent received, with nothing taken off first. Not the caretaker's wages, not the repainting between tenants, not the interest on the loan that built the block.

That gross basis is what catches people out. The regime came in through the Finance Act 2015 and took effect on 1 January 2016 as a simplified, final tax: you pay a flat share of each month's rent and the income never appears again in your annual return. The price of that simplicity is that KRA allows no expenses, losses or capital deductions against the rent. A landlord whose costs swallow 40% of the rent is, in effect, paying 12.5% of what is left.

The regime also has edges. It covers resident landlords, both individuals and companies, whose rent from residential property in Kenya comes to more than KSh 288,000 and no more than KSh 15 million in a year. Commercial rent, non-resident landlords and anyone above KSh 15 million are outside it and are taxed through the ordinary annual return. A landlord inside the band can also elect out by giving the Commissioner written notice, after which the annual regime applies instead.

The rate is 7.5% from January 2024; until 31 December 2023 it was 10%, which matters when you amend an older month. Both the rate and the band sit in editable fields, defaulting to the current figures, so an old period or a future Finance Act change can be run without waiting for an update. What it cannot settle for you is whether a letting counts as residential, whether you are resident for tax purposes, or whether KRA has assessed a different figure for the month; those questions sit with KRA and, where they are unclear, a tax adviser.

What is kenya residential rental income tax calculator?

Residential rental income tax is a monthly charge, under section 6A of the Income Tax Act (Cap. 470), on the gross rent a resident person receives for the use or occupation of residential property in Kenya — houses, flats, bedsitters and similar homes. It is a final tax: what you pay each month settles the income tax on that rent completely, so there is no year-end balancing and nothing to claim back in a lean year. The base is rent received, which means a month in which a tenant pays half is taxed on half, and a month with no rent still needs a nil return. Since July 2023 KRA has also been able to appoint rental income tax agents to deduct the 7.5% at source and remit it within five working days; that deduction is then a credit against the landlord's own return for the month.

How to use this calculator.

1. 01Add up the rent actually received this month from every residential unit you let and enter the total as gross monthly rent. Use the figure before any letting agent's commission and before any tax a tenant withheld, and leave out rent from shops, offices or godowns.
2. 02Keep the rate at 7.5 for any month from January 2024. If you are amending a return for December 2023 or earlier, enter 10, the rate that applied then.
3. 03Leave the two thresholds at KSh 288,000 and KSh 15,000,000 unless a Finance Act changes them. They do not alter the tax figure; they set the range the "Regime range check" result tests the annualized rent against, with the lower figure a strict floor (rent must exceed it) and the upper figure inclusive.
4. 04In the credits field, enter any rental income tax already deducted from this month's rent by an appointed agent, as shown on the withholding certificates that iTax lists when you file. Leave it at zero if nobody withheld anything.
5. 05Use the net payable as your check on the iTax return under the 'Income Tax - Rental Income' obligation, then generate a payment registration number and pay by bank or mobile money before the 20th of the following month.

The formula.

The tax is Tax = R × t, where R is the gross residential rent received in the month in Kenya shillings and t is the rate as a fraction: 7.5 ÷ 100 = 0.075 at the default. The balance to pay is Net = Tax − Credit, where Credit is tax already withheld or paid for that month; if the credit is larger than the tax, the net is shown as zero rather than a negative figure. Separately, the calculator multiplies R by 12 to give an annualized rent, A = 12R.

There is no expense term because the law provides none. Since the rate falls on gross rent, its weight on a landlord's real profit depends on costs: if costs take a share e of the rent, the tax as a share of profit is t ÷ (1 − e). At 7.5%, a landlord spending 40% of rent on upkeep, management and loan interest gives up 0.075 ÷ 0.6 = 12.5% of profit; one with almost no costs gives up close to 7.5%.

The annualized figure is a straight-line projection of one month. The KSh 288,000 and KSh 15 million limits apply to what you actually receive over the year, which is less than twelve times this month's rent whenever a unit stands empty or a tenant falls behind. In monthly terms the limits are KSh 24,000 and KSh 1,250,000. The multiplication runs whatever rent you enter, inside the band or outside it, so a result for KSh 20,000 a month is arithmetic only: a landlord at that level is below the regime altogether.

A worked example.

Frequently asked questions.

References& sources.

1. [1]Kenya Revenue Authority (n.d.). "Rental Income Tax." KRA.
2. [2]Kenya Law (2024). "Income Tax Act, Cap. 470." National Council for Law Reporting.
3. [3]Kenya Revenue Authority (2024). "Overview of Monthly Rental Income Tax." KRA.
4. [4]National Institute of Standards and Technology (2026). "NIST Handbook 133, Appendix E: General Tables of Units of Measurement." U.S. Department of Commerce.
5. [5]Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (2019). "The International System of Units (SI Brochure), 9th edition." BIPM.