Kenya Narrows Crypto-Offshore Gambling Escape Valve in Finance Bill 2026

Two Reform Lanes in One Vehicle Narrow Crypto-Offshore Escape for Kenyan Gamblers

Kenya’s Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi tabled the Finance Bill 2026 in Parliament on Friday, April 30, proposing wide-ranging amendments to the country’s tax framework. The bill entered its public participation phase on Monday, May 11, when the National Assembly formally invited written and oral submissions on the proposed amendments before review by the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning.

The bill’s provisions on mandatory annual reporting requirements for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating in Kenya, and a restoration of a previous 20% withholding tax on gambling winnings are of key interest to cryptocurrency and iGaming sector participants.

Under proposed amendments to the Tax Procedures Act, VASPs facilitating exchange transactions, providing trading platforms on behalf of customers, or acting as counterparties or intermediaries would be required to file annual information returns with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). A separate provision authorizes Kenya to enter international agreements for the automatic exchange of virtual asset tax information with partner jurisdictions, paving the way for cross-border data-sharing aimed at tackling offshore tax evasion through cryptocurrency platforms.

On the gambling side, the bill reintroduces the 20% withholding tax on winnings paid out by operators licensed under the Gambling Control Act, 2025, reversing the Finance Act 2025’s removal of the same levy. The proposed framework layers the 20% on winnings on top of the existing 5% withholding on withdrawals, applicable to both residents and non-residents. The bill also expands the definition of “amount deposited” for excise purposes to cover chips, tokens, credits, and any cash equivalents transferred for gambling, capturing all forms of value used at betting platforms regardless of their account structure. Mobile phone excise duty would rise from 10% to 25%, payable at the point of mobile network activation rather than import.

The VASP reporting framework reflects Kenya’s commitment to implement the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). Kenya is on the second tier of jurisdictions committed to commence cross-border tax-information exchanges under CARF in 2028 or 2029, alongside Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and others. The country has not yet signed the CARF Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement that formalizes information-sharing relationships between participating tax administrations, but the proposed bill represents the domestic-law implementation step that typically precedes such a signature.

The Kenya Revenue Authority is targeting KSh 2.985 trillion in tax revenue for the fiscal year beginning July 2026. The bill text currently lists July 1 next year as the effective date, which legal analysts at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr – a major Africa-focused law firm with an active Kenya tax practice – have flagged as erroneous and expected to be amended to July 1, 2026, with certain digital reporting requirements scheduled for January 1, 2027. Tightening regulated gambling and crypto reporting in the same legislative vehicle narrows the conventional regulator-crackdown-to-crypto-offshore migration pathway for affected sectors.