Paying Your Taxes to KRA Using M-Pesa: A Complete Guide

Paying taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) via M-Pesa is one of the fastest, most reliable ways to meet your tax obligations in Kenya — whether you're an employee settling a late-filing penalty, a landlord remitting Monthly Rental Income, or a business owner paying VAT and PAYE. This guide explains the entire process end to end, starting with the single government paybill number you need to know and why it replaced the older KRA-specific paybill.

You'll learn what a Payment Registration Number (PRN) is and why no M-Pesa tax payment works without one, followed by a step-by-step walkthrough for generating a PRN on iTax and the two M-Pesa methods for completing the payment. The guide also covers which taxes are eligible, the M-Pesa transaction limits that affect larger payments, practical tips and common pitfalls to avoid, and a worked example showing a full payment from start to finish in under ten minutes.

The One Paybill Number You Need to Remember: 222222

In November 2023, KRA consolidated all mobile money tax payments under a single government paybill. All tax payments via mobile money must now be made through Government PayBill number 222222, in line with Kenya Gazette No. 16008 of 2022 and the Presidential Directive designating 222222 as the government's single payment platform. This replaced the older KRA-specific paybill (572572), although some taxpayers still recall it.

The significance of 222222 goes beyond tax. It is the universal e-Citizen paybill, meaning the same number is used for services ranging from motor vehicle ownership transfers and land searches to birth and death registrations. For taxpayers, this simply means one number to remember for everything tax-related.

Before You Pay: Understanding the Payment Registration Number (PRN)

Here is the single most important thing to understand before you even open M-Pesa: you cannot pay KRA taxes via M-Pesa without a Payment Registration Number (PRN).

The PRN — sometimes called the e-slip number — is a unique reference KRA uses to link your mobile money payment to your specific tax obligation on your iTax ledger. Without it, your money may leave your phone but fail to reflect against the tax you intended to pay, which can lead to penalties even though you technically "paid."

A few key things to know about the PRN:

• It is generated electronically through your iTax profile on the KRA website.
• Each PRN has a unique serial number and barcode, tied to one specific transaction.
• It expires if not used within a set window (commonly cited as 7 to 30 days depending on the tax type), so generate it close to when you plan to pay.
• It replaces the older manual payment stationery like P11 and VAT3 forms.

How to Generate a PRN on iTax

Generating a PRN requires your KRA PIN and your iTax password. If you have both, the process takes about five minutes.

1. Log into iTax. Go to https://itax.kra.go.ke, enter your KRA PIN and password, solve the arithmetic security question, and click Login.
2. Open the Payment Registration form. On the top menu, click Payments, then select Payment Registration from the drop-down.
3. Fill in the e-Payment Registration form. Most of your details (PIN, name, address, email) will be pre-populated. You will need to select the Tax Head (for example, Income Tax, VAT, Excise, or PAYE), the Tax Sub Head (the specific obligation, such as Turnover Tax, Monthly Rental Income, or Corporation Tax), the Payment Type (usually Self-Assessment Tax, but this varies by tax head), and the Tax Period (the month or year the payment relates to).
4. Enter the amount and select the mode of payment. If you filed a return, the tax amount will often be auto-populated, though you can edit it. Choose your payment mode — for mobile money, you will essentially be paying via the Paybill 222222 route.
5. Submit and download the payment slip. Once submitted, iTax generates a payment slip as a downloadable PDF. The PRN appears at the top right corner of the slip. Save it somewhere you can read it when you're on M-Pesa — a screenshot on your phone works well.

Paying via M-Pesa: The Two Methods

Once you have your PRN, you have two ways to pay. Both end in exactly the same place, so pick whichever feels more comfortable.

Method 1: The Lipa na M-Pesa Menu

This is the standard route most people use.

1. Open M-Pesa on your phone (via the SIM Toolkit or the M-Pesa app).
2. Select Lipa na M-Pesa.
3. Choose Paybill.
4. Enter the Business Number: 222222.
5. Enter the Account Number: your PRN (the payment registration number from your e-slip).
6. Enter the exact amount shown on the PRN.
7. Enter your M-Pesa PIN and confirm.

You should receive an M-Pesa confirmation SMS within seconds. Save this message — it is your proof of payment.

Method 2: The *222# USSD Shortcut

Safaricom has a dedicated USSD code for government payments, which is useful if you prefer dialling over menu navigation.

1. Dial *222# on your phone.
2. Select the Pay KRA bill option.
3. Enter your E-slip/PRN number.
4. Select M-Pesa as your payment mode.
5. Enter your M-Pesa PIN to complete the transaction.

Which Taxes Can You Pay via M-Pesa?

Essentially all of them, provided you've generated a PRN. The PayBill 222222 route accepts payments for tax heads including:

• PAYE (Pay As You Earn) for employees
• VAT (Value Added Tax)
• Corporation Tax for companies
• Turnover Tax for businesses with turnover below KSh 5 million, paid at 3% on gross income
• Monthly Rental Income (MRI) for residential landlords with rental income of KSh 10 million or less per annum, taxed at 10% of gross rent
• Withholding Tax
• Excise Duty
• Advance Tax for commercial and public service vehicles
• Stamp Duty for property transactions
• Late filing penalties (a common reason many Kenyans use this method)

M-Pesa Transaction Limits: What You Need to Know

For small payments like annual nil-return penalties or a monthly MRI bill, M-Pesa limits are not a concern. But if you're a business owner remitting VAT or PAYE, the limits matter.

As of the current Safaricom tariffs approved by the Central Bank of Kenya:

If your tax bill exceeds KSh 250,000, you will need to split it into multiple transactions (each with the same PRN), stay within the KSh 500,000 daily cap, or use an alternative channel such as direct bank payment or RTGS. For very large corporate tax obligations, banks and RTGS transfers are usually more practical.

Note also that standard M-Pesa paybill transaction charges apply — these are typically borne by the sender for paybill transactions and scale with the amount sent.

Practical Tips and Common Pitfalls

Generate the PRN close to when you plan to pay. PRNs expire. If you generate one and then get distracted for two weeks, you may return to find it's no longer valid and need to generate a fresh one.

Enter the PRN carefully. This is where most payment-matching problems originate. A transposed digit means your money is sitting unlinked somewhere in KRA's system while your actual obligation still shows as unpaid. Type it, then check it twice before confirming.

Pay the exact amount on the PRN. Underpaying leaves a balance owing; overpaying creates reconciliation headaches. If the amount on the PRN seems wrong, go back to iTax and generate a new one rather than adjusting on the fly.

Keep every M-Pesa confirmation message. This is your receipt. If there's ever a reconciliation dispute with KRA, that SMS — with its transaction ID, timestamp, and amount — is your evidence of payment.

Expect some delay in ledger updates. M-Pesa payments usually reflect on your iTax ledger within minutes to a few hours, but occasionally can take longer during peak periods (such as the end-of-June individual returns deadline). Do not panic and pay again — check again a few hours later.

If your payment doesn't reflect, the first thing to confirm is whether the PRN on the M-Pesa message matches the PRN on your iTax payment slip. If it matches but still hasn't reflected after 24 hours, you will need to provide the M-Pesa confirmation and the payment slip to KRA for back-office reconciliation. You can reach the KRA Contact Centre on 020-4-999-999 or 0711-099-999, or by emailing [email protected].

A Quick Worked Example

Say you're a small business owner who forgot to file your 2023 nil return and has been slapped with a KSh 2,000 penalty. Here's what your flow looks like end to end:

1. Log into iTax. Go to Payments → Payment Registration.
2. Select Tax Head: Income Tax; Tax Sub Head: Income Tax - Resident Individual; Payment Type: Self-Assessment Tax; Tax Period: 2023.
3. Submit, download the payment slip, and note the PRN (it'll be something like KRA202312345678).
4. Open M-Pesa → Lipa na M-Pesa → Paybill.
5. Business number: 222222. Account: KRA202312345678. Amount: 2000.
6. Enter PIN. Receive confirmation SMS.
7. Check iTax a few hours later — the penalty should now show as settled.

Total time, start to finish: about five to ten minutes.

Why This System Actually Works Well

It's easy to grumble about Kenyan bureaucracy, but the iTax-M-Pesa integration is genuinely one of the more functional pieces of e-government in the region. It removes the need for physical bank visits, brings tax compliance within reach of anyone with a basic phone, and — importantly — creates an audit trail on both the M-Pesa side and the iTax side. For a country where tax compliance has historically been hampered by access friction, that matters.

The main discipline required from you, the taxpayer, is the PRN step. Once you internalise that every mobile tax payment begins with generating a PRN on iTax, everything else falls into place.

This guide reflects KRA and M-Pesa procedures as of April 2026. Tariffs, transaction limits, and iTax interface details may change — if in doubt, verify on kra.go.ke or call the KRA Contact Centre.