Indicative tax on foreign and local income.
Indicative Kenyan tax
—
Chargeable income
—
Kenyan-source tax
—
Remittances
—
Sending money home is not the taxable event
The single most common worry among Kenyans abroad is that the money they wire to family will be taxed when it lands. It will not. A remittance is a transfer of money you already own, not fresh income, so the act of sending it home is not a taxable event in Kenya. What can be taxable is the income that money came from, and that turns on one thing above all: your tax residency. This calculator is built around that distinction. It gives an indicative Kenyan charge on your income depending on whether you are resident or non-resident, and it labels remittances, correctly, as not taxed.
Residency is the switch that changes everything
Flip the residency selector and the chargeable base changes completely. A Kenyan tax resident is generally taxable on employment income earned anywhere in the world, so the tool adds your foreign income to your Kenyan-source income and taxes the total on the graduated annual scale. A non-resident is taxed only on Kenyan-source income, so the foreign figure drops out entirely and only the local income is charged. Residency is determined by presence and ties to Kenya under rules the Kenya Revenue Authority administers, not by where you hold a passport, so establish your status before you read too much into the result.
One honest limitation to understand: where a resident is taxed on foreign income that was already taxed abroad, a foreign tax credit can reduce or remove the Kenyan charge to avoid double taxation. This calculator does not apply that credit. The figure it shows for a resident is the gross Kenyan charge on worldwide income before any foreign tax credit, computed on the rates this calculator applies. Your actual liability could be considerably lower once a credit for tax paid overseas is allowed, which you should work through with the KRA or an adviser.
A resident earning abroad with rent at home
Suppose you earn KES 3.6 million abroad in the year and also receive KES 1.2 million of Kenyan-source rental or business income, and you are a Kenyan tax resident. The tool adds the two to a chargeable income of KES 4.8 million and taxes it on the resident basis it applies. Now switch the same person to non-resident: the foreign KES 3.6 million falls away and only the KES 1.2 million of Kenyan income is charged.
| Position | Chargeable income | Indicative Kenyan tax |
|---|
The resident figure of KES 1,348,600 is before any foreign tax credit; if you already paid tax on that KES 3.6 million abroad, a credit could pull the Kenyan charge down sharply. The chart contrasts the two residency positions on the same underlying earnings.
The practical takeaway: it is your residency, not the remittance, that drives the bill, and a resident's headline charge can be misleading until the foreign tax credit is layered in. A common mistake is for someone who has genuinely become non-resident to keep declaring and paying Kenyan tax on their overseas salary, overpaying for years. If your circumstances are mixed, model both positions and get your residency confirmed.
If I send money home to build a house, is that taxed?
The transfer itself is not taxed, because it is your own money moving, not income arising. Building a house from remitted funds is spending, not earning. Tax can still arise later from what you do with the property, such as rental income while you let it or capital gains tax when you sell it, but those are separate events. This calculator treats remittances as not taxed and addresses only the income side.
Does Kenya tax my foreign savings or investments?
For a resident, foreign income such as employment earnings is generally within the Kenyan net, with a foreign tax credit available for tax paid abroad. The treatment of foreign investment income can be more nuanced and may depend on a double-tax agreement between Kenya and the other country. This tool models employment-style income on the resident basis without applying the credit, so treat its output as indicative and confirm the position for your specific income with the KRA.