Kenya’s Finance Bill 2026 has been tabled in Parliament with two measures that stand out for crypto and online gambling operators: mandatory annual reporting for virtual asset service providers and the return of a 20% withholding tax on gambling winnings. The two changes sit in the same tax package.
The bill was submitted by Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi on April 30, 2026, with the government targeting KSh 120 billion. Public participation opened on May 11, after the National Assembly invited written and oral submissions before review by the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning.
Annual returns proposed for VASPs
Under proposed amendments to the Tax Procedures Act, VASPs operating in Kenya would have to file annual information returns with the Kenya Revenue Authority, or KRA. The scope covers firms facilitating exchange transactions, providing trading platforms on behalf of customers, and entities acting as counterparties or intermediaries.
A separate clause would allow Kenya to enter international agreements for the automatic exchange of virtual asset tax information with partner jurisdictions. The stated direction is cross-border data sharing aimed at offshore tax evasion conducted through crypto platforms. The reporting model aligns with the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF).
According to the source material, Kenya is part of the second group of jurisdictions that have committed to begin CARF-based cross-border tax information exchanges in 2028 or 2029, alongside Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and others. Kenya has not yet signed the CARF Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, but the bill is described as the domestic legal step that usually comes before that signature.
20% tax on winnings returns
On the gambling side, the bill would restore a 20% withholding tax on winnings paid by operators licensed under the Gambling Control Act, 2025. That reverses the Finance Act 2025 decision that had removed the same levy.
The bill would stack that 20% withholding on winnings on top of the existing 5% withholding on withdrawals, with both residents and non-residents covered. It also broadens the definition of “amount deposited” for excise purposes so that chips, tokens, credits, and any cash equivalents transferred for gambling are included, no matter how a betting account is structured.
Another provision would raise mobile phone excise duty from 10% to 25%, collected at the point of mobile network activation instead of import. The Kenya Revenue Authority is targeting KSh 2.985 trillion in tax revenue for the fiscal year starting in July 2026.
Effective date may be corrected
The current text lists the effective date as July 1 next year. Legal analysts at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr said that appears to be an error and is expected to be corrected to July 1, 2026, while some digital reporting rules are scheduled for January 1, 2027.
By tightening gambling taxation and crypto reporting in one bill, Kenya is narrowing a route that has often linked regulated market pressure with movement toward crypto-based and offshore channels. In this proposal, reporting, withholding, and cross-border information exchange are being built into the same tax framework.