Customs, Excise and Withholding Tax
Indirect Taxes
Customs, Excise and Withholding Tax
Syllabus tag: KASNEB CPA | Intermediate Level | CA26 Public Finance and Taxation | Topic 8 Customs, Excise and Withholding Tax
Rates check. Rates below are those in force in 2026. Customs and excise rates in particular change frequently. Confirm the current position on the KRA website and the EAC Common External Tariff.
Lesson objectives
By the end of this topic, you will be able to:
- Compute customs duty and import VAT in the correct order
- Explain the East African Community Common External Tariff bands
- Distinguish specific from ad valorem excise duty
- Apply the main withholding tax rates for residents and non-residents
- Explain the purpose of withholding VAT
Why this matters
These three taxes share one feature: the person who bears the tax is rarely the person who accounts for it. Getting the order of computation right, and knowing who must deduct, is where the marks are.
Customs duty
Kenya applies the East African Community Common External Tariff, so the same rates apply across the partner states. Three main bands:
| Band | Rate | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Raw materials and capital goods | 0% | Inputs not made in the region |
| Intermediate goods | 10% | Semi-processed inputs |
| Finished goods | 25% | Goods competing with EAC production |
Certain sensitive items — sugar, rice, milk, second-hand clothing — attract rates above 25% to protect regional producers.
The structure has a logic worth stating: duty rises with the degree of processing. A manufacturer importing raw material pays nothing; an importer bringing in the finished article pays 25%. The tariff is deliberately designed to make local manufacturing more attractive than importing.
Goods moving between EAC partner states that meet the rules of origin enter duty free.
The order of computation
This is the examinable mechanic, and the order matters.
Goods with a customs value of KES 4,000,000, import duty at 25%:
| KES | |
|---|---|
| Customs value | 4,000,000 |
| Import duty at 25% | 1,000,000 |
| Value for VAT (4,000,000 + 1,000,000) | 5,000,000 |
| Import VAT at 16% | 800,000 |
| Total payable at the border | 1,800,000 |
Import VAT is charged on the duty-inclusive figure, not on the customs value alone. Duty therefore increases the VAT as well as itself. Applying 16% to 4,000,000 gives 640,000 and understates the liability by 160,000.
Where excise duty and other levies apply, they are added before VAT too. VAT always comes last.
The importer, if VAT-registered, recovers the import VAT as input tax. The customs duty is not recoverable and becomes part of the cost of the goods.
:::checkpoint A trader complains that duty is charged twice because VAT is computed on a figure that already includes duty. Explain why this is not double taxation of the same thing, and what the VAT is actually being charged on. :::
Excise duty
Charged on specific goods and services rather than on trade generally: alcohol, tobacco, fuel, sugar-sweetened beverages, airtime, and certain financial transactions.
Two ways of charging it:
- Specific — a fixed amount per unit, per litre or per stick. Simple to administer, and its real value falls with inflation unless adjusted
- Ad valorem — a percentage of value. Keeps pace with prices, but requires the value to be established and can be manipulated
Kenya uses both, and specific rates are subject to annual inflation adjustment so their real value does not erode.
Excise serves the repricing purpose of taxation: making socially costly consumption more expensive. It is also, in practice, a reliable revenue source, because demand for the goods concerned is largely inelastic — which is exactly why they were chosen.
Withholding tax
The payer deducts tax at source and remits it, so revenue is collected before the recipient has the chance to fail to declare it.
| Payment | Resident | Non-resident |
|---|---|---|
| Management and professional fees | 5% | 20% |
| Dividends | 5% | 15% |
| Interest (bank) | 15% | 15% |
| Royalties | 5% | 20% |
| Rent — immovable property | 7.5% | 30% |
| Digital content monetisation | 5% | 20% |
Deducted tax is due by the 20th of the following month.
Final or not. For a resident, withholding tax is usually a credit against the final liability — the income is declared and the tax already deducted is set off. For a non-resident with no permanent establishment, it is generally a final tax: nothing further is due and no return is required.
That distinction decides whether a candidate adds the income back into a computation or leaves it out.
Failure to deduct. The agent becomes liable for the tax itself. The obligation does not revert to the recipient, whatever they may have done with the money.
Withholding VAT
Appointed agents — largely government bodies and large enterprises — deduct part of the VAT on payments to suppliers and remit it directly to KRA. The supplier sets the amount withheld against its own VAT liability.
The purpose is collection efficiency. Rather than relying on many small suppliers to remit, the authority collects from a few large, visible buyers.
The consequence for the supplier is a cash flow cost: the VAT is taken at the point of payment rather than at the end of the month, and a supplier in a persistent withholding position can build up credits it must claim back.
:::checkpoint A Kenyan company pays KES 6,000,000 in professional fees, half to a resident firm and half to a firm in South Africa with no Kenyan presence. Compute the withholding tax on each, and say which recipient must file a Kenyan return. :::