TikTok is now asking Kenyan creators for their tax information

TikTok has started asking Kenyan creators for their tax information, bringing another major platform into Kenya’s effort to collect tax directly from digital earnings.

Tiktok is pushing a notification titled “Complete the Kenya tax form” through its system notifications, asking creators for their name, email address, residential address, country of residence and residential status. TikTok says the information will allow it and local tax authorities to verify a creator’s tax responsibility, and that it applies to payouts from programmes they already participate in as well as any future programmes they join.

The key question on the form is a simple one: are you a resident of Kenya or not?

That determines the withholding rate under Kenya’s digital content tax rules. Since July 2023, income from digital content monetisation has been subject to a 5% withholding tax for Kenyan residents and 20% for non-residents. TikTok has not yet said when it will begin applying the deduction, but the form is the latest indication that the platform is preparing to do so.

TikTok is also not the first platform to make this move. Meta began telling Kenyan creators on Facebook and Instagram in November 2025 that 5% would be deducted from their payouts from January 2026. Google followed with its own AdSense notice, saying 5% would be withheld from finalised YouTube earnings, with September earnings paid in October affected by the change.

Kenya’s Finance Act 2023 brought digital content monetisation into the Income Tax Act, covering activities such as advertising, sponsorships, affiliate commissions, subscriptions, merchandise and licensing. The following year, the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024 went further by making the owner or operator of a digital marketplace or platform responsible for deducting the tax, including where that platform is based outside Kenya.

That is why the tax is now showing up inside the platforms where creators actually make their money. Instead of leaving the entire process to the individual creator at the end of the tax year, the law puts part of the collection process at the point where the payment is made.

TikTok’s form, however, leaves some pieces of the process unclear.

The company has not announced a withholding rate, a start date or a consequence for creators who ignore the request. For now, its instruction is simply to complete the form “as soon as possible”.

There is also a difference between TikTok’s approach and Google’s. Google asks creators for their 11-character KRA PIN, while TikTok’s current form asks for a residential address instead. That could matter once deductions begin, because withholding tax is credited against a creator’s tax liability and the withholding certificate generated by KRA is tied to the creator’s tax records. TikTok has not said whether it will collect the PIN at another stage.

Then there is the question of what TikTok actually considers taxable under the new process.

Kenyan creators currently have several ways to earn through TikTok, including LIVE and video gifts, subscriptions and Work With Artist. The Finance Act lists eight forms of digital content monetisation, but virtual gifts are not explicitly among them. TikTok has not explained which of its payouts will be subject to withholding, even though the new form says it covers programmes creators currently participate in and future ones they may join.

For now, there is no start date attached to the form and no indication of what happens if a creator does not complete it. There is simply a new tax form sitting inside TikTok, waiting for Kenyan creators to provide the information the platform says it needs.