Tax Consultancy Services in Nairobi, Kenya
Most business owners don't go looking for tax consultants in Kenya until something forces the issue. A notice arrives from KRA. A VAT return refuses to balance. A lender or a tender committee asks for three years of clean filings and the records don't quite support them.
By that point the options have narrowed and the cost has gone up.
Running a business here means carrying several obligations at once. Income tax on profits, paid in instalments through the year. VAT once your turnover passes the registration threshold, with a monthly return whether or not you traded. PAYE on everyone on your payroll. Withholding tax on certain payments to suppliers, professionals and landlords. Each has its own return, its own schedule and its own penalty when it slips.
Uwazi Consulting is a Nairobi-based accounting and tax practice working with small and medium-sized businesses across Kenya. We help you identify which obligations apply, meet them accurately and on time, and plan ahead so the tax bill is budgeted for rather than discovered.
Our Tax Consultancy Services
Corporate tax advisory
How you are structured changes what you pay. We advise on the tax consequences of the decisions in front of you — incorporating, taking on a partner, opening a branch, buying equipment, paying dividends — before you commit to them.
VAT advisory
VAT is where most SME disputes begin. We assess whether you must register, review how sales are classified between standard-rated, zero-rated and exempt supplies, check input tax is claimed on valid documentation, and fix returns that won't agree with your books.
Tax planning
Legitimate planning is about timing, structure and allowances already written into the law — capital allowances on qualifying assets, correctly timed deductions, the right treatment of losses. We model your liability under the options open to you and say which are worth it.
Tax compliance reviews
A health check on where your business stands. We go through your filing history, iTax registrations and returns already submitted, and identify gaps, overpayments and exposures before someone else does — useful ahead of an audit, a sale or a funding round.
Tax return preparation
Income tax, VAT, PAYE, withholding tax and instalment tax returns, computed from records we have reconciled rather than figures typed in to meet a deadline. You get the computation and the schedules behind every number.
Support with KRA correspondence
When KRA raises a query, an assessment or a compliance check, the response has to be supported by documents. We reconstruct the records, prepare the computations and draft the written response for you to review and submit.
Common Tax Challenges Facing Kenyan SMEs
Records that can't support the return. Sales in one place, expenses in another, personal and business money through the same account. The return gets filed on an estimate and can't be defended when someone asks for detail. Electronic invoicing has raised the stakes: expenses without a valid tax invoice risk being disallowed, and KRA now matches your declarations against the invoice, withholding tax and customs data it holds.
Not knowing which obligations apply. Businesses miss a registration they should have made, or keep filing under one they no longer need. Turnover passes the VAT threshold and nobody notices. Withholding tax is skipped on a consultant's invoice. A dormant obligation quietly generates nil-return penalties.
Returns prepared under time pressure. The deadline arrives, the books aren't closed, and the return goes in with numbers that will have to be amended later.
No clear answer when KRA asks. A query or an assessment needs a response built on documents, reconciliations and a defensible position. Without that, businesses either pay an amount they may not owe or let the matter escalate.
Most of this traces back to the underlying records. If that is where your difficulty sits, our bookkeeping and accounting services deal with the cause rather than the symptom.
When Should Your Business Consult a Tax Professional?
The useful moment is almost always earlier than people think.
- At formation. Sole proprietor, partnership or limited company determines what you pay and what you must file. Changing it later on tax grounds is expensive.
- When you are growing. Turnover approaching the VAT threshold, a first payroll, a new revenue line or a second branch each change your obligations.
- When operations change. Importing, paying a foreign supplier, taking on contractors or earning income outside Kenya bring treatment you won't have met before.
- When something is already wrong. A notice, a penalty, returns you know are inaccurate. These get costlier the longer they sit.
- Before a transaction. Selling, raising investment or bidding for a tender puts your filing history in front of someone who will read it closely.
How Our Tax Consultancy Process Works
- Initial discussion. You tell us what the business does and what prompted the call. We tell you whether we can help, what it involves and what it costs.
- Document review. We look at your registrations, filing history, recent returns and the records behind them.
- Assessment. We establish your actual position — what is compliant, what is exposed, what has been missed and what correcting it would cost.
- Recommendations. A written position in plain language: what we advise, why, and the order to do it in.
- Follow-through. We handle the filings, computations and correspondence agreed with you, and keep you to the dates that matter.
Why Work With Uwazi for Tax Consultancy?
Qualified and accountable. Our work is led by a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) — professional standards, and a body you can hold us to.
Over ten years with Kenyan businesses. Long enough to have handled what SMEs actually run into — late registrations, VAT reconciliations that won't close, assessments that arrive without warning.
Tax advice connected to the books. We also provide accounting, bookkeeping and payroll services, so a PAYE or VAT question is answered against your actual records rather than a summary of them.
Clear about scope. We tell you what we can do and what it will cost before we start.
Frequently Asked Questions About Tax Consultancy
What does a tax consultant do in Kenya?
They work out which taxes apply to your business, compute and file the returns, advise on the tax consequences of commercial decisions, and help you respond when KRA raises a question.
When should a small business hire a tax consultant?
When the obligations stop being obvious: registering for VAT, a first payroll, a foreign supplier, a KRA notice, or preparing for a sale or a loan.
What is the difference between a tax consultant and an accountant?
An accountant records and reports what the business has done. A tax consultant focuses on what you owe and what you can legitimately do about it. In a small practice the same qualified professional often does both.
Can a tax consultant assist with KRA compliance?
Yes — with registration, computation, filing, reconciliations and documented responses to queries and assessments. Note that KRA operates a separate registration for tax agents, who are licensed to act on a taxpayer's behalf. Uwazi is not a registered tax agent: we prepare and support your filings, and you remain the party that submits them.
How are tax consultancy fees determined?
By scope and complexity. A one-off advisory question is priced differently from an ongoing filing engagement or a review of several years of history. We quote before starting.