Catering levy in Kenya: the 2% Tourism Levy, the eLevy portal and monthly returns

From catering levy to Tourism Levy: what changed

Before 2012, hotels and restaurants paid a training and development levy to the Catering and Tourism Development Levy Trustees, under the Hotels and Restaurants Act. That is why so many people still search for the catering levy. The Tourism Act 2011 repealed the old Act, and the Tourism Fund, which began operating on 1 September 2012, became the legal successor to the Trustees.

The levy itself is set by the Tourism Levy Order, Legal Notice 198 of 2015. It requires the owners of Class A and Class B enterprises listed in the Ninth Schedule of the Tourism Act to pay a levy of two per centum of the gross receipts from their monthly sale of food, drinks, accommodation and all other services. The Tourism Fund Regulations, Legal Notice 199 of 2015, set out the record keeping, the deadline and the penalties.

The money funds tourism marketing, the Kenya Utalii College, the Tourism Police Unit, hospitality students and the MICE secretariat, according to the Tourism Fund. For an owner, the practical point is simple: it is a monthly obligation on gross sales, separate from VAT and eTIMS invoicing.

Step by step

1. 1

   Confirm your class

   Check whether your business is a Class A enterprise (hotels, lodges, guest houses, villas and similar) or a Class B enterprise (restaurants and other food and beverage services) under the Ninth Schedule of the Tourism Act. Those two classes pay the levy.

2. 2

   Create an eLevy account

   Register on the Tourism Fund's eLevy portal with your phone number, name, email address and a password. One email address or phone number can hold only one account.

3. 3

   Add your establishment

   Link your establishment code to the account. A group with several outlets can add every code to one account and file a group return.

4. 4

   Record sales daily

   Keep a daily record of accommodation, food, drinks and other service sales for the month. The regulations require this record in Form TFR 1, and the portal's return follows the same layout.

5. 5

   File and pay by the 10th

   Submit the return, generate the e-slip and pay by the 10th of the following month. If the 10th is not a working day, pay on the last working day before it.

Who pays: hotels, restaurants, caterers and event venues

Class A covers accommodation: hotels, members clubs, motels, inns, hostels, spa resorts, lodges, tented camps, villas, homestays, guest houses and similar. Class B covers restaurants and other food and beverage services. If you are in either class, every shilling of food, drink, room and service sales counts towards the levy base.

Outside caterers sell prepared food and drinks, which places them in other food and beverage services. If you run a catering company, plan on paying the levy on catering sales unless the Tourism Fund confirms otherwise in writing.

Event venues need a closer look. The Act lists conference and event services as Class G, and the Levy Order only names Classes A and B. A hall that rents out space and nothing else may therefore sit outside the Order. Most venues, though, also sell food, drinks or rooms. Once you do, those sales fall within Class A or B. Ask the Tourism Fund to confirm your classification, and keep the reply on file.

How to calculate the levy, including when prices already include it

If your prices do not include the levy, the sum is easy: 2% of gross receipts. A restaurant with KSh 1,500,000 of food and drink sales in March owes KSh 30,000 by 10 April.

Many hotels and venues quote all-inclusive prices that already contain VAT, a service charge and the levy. In that case you back the levy out of the total. The Tourism Fund's levy brochure gives the divisors below. The number under the line is 100 plus every percentage built into the price.

• Worked example: KSh 214,000 of all-inclusive food sales with a 5% service charge gives a levy of 214,000 x 2 / 107 = KSh 4,000.
• Keep the same method every month, and make sure your menus and quotations state clearly what the price includes.

Using the eLevy portal

The eLevy portal is the Tourism Fund's web system for registering establishments, filing returns and paying. You create an account with a phone number, name, email address and password, then link your establishment code. Each email address or phone number can hold one account, so use a company address rather than a staff member's personal email.

The portal offers three kinds of return. Simple returns suit a single outlet with a fixed service charge rate and work like a digital return book. Group returns let a business with several branches file and pay with one transaction. Multiple other services covers establishments with varying service charge rates across other services.

To file, you pick the month, enter VAT and any amounts that do not attract the levy, enter service charge details for accommodation, food, drinks and other services, then submit the daily entries. The portal produces an e-slip for payment, and you can view arrears and pay penalties from the same screen. The brochure lists bank deposit, banker's cheque, M-Pesa, EFT and RTGS as accepted payment modes; check the portal for current account details before paying.

Deadlines and penalties

The regulations require every owner to keep a monthly record in Form TFR 1 and submit it with the levy on or before the 10th of the following month. If the 10th falls on a weekend or public holiday, the Tourism Fund asks you to pay on the last working day before it.

Miss the deadline and the regulations impose an instant penalty of KSh 5,000, then an additional 3% of the levy due for each month or part of a month that it stays unpaid. Unpaid levy is a civil debt the Tourism Fund can recover through the courts or appointed agents. Failing to pay is also an offence, which the Fund's brochure says carries a fine of up to KSh 20,000, up to six months in prison, or both.

Owners also have to keep a register of guests and books of account at the premises. Keep the daily sales sheets that support each return for as long as you keep your tax records, because a levy audit will ask for them.

Changes being discussed for 2026

In August 2026 the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife proposed separating the collection of the levy from the management of the Fund, with a revenue agency collecting and the Fund managing the money. This is a proposal at the time of writing. The Tourism Fund still runs the eLevy portal and still collects the 2% levy, so keep filing there until a gazette notice changes the process.

Whatever system collects it, the base and the rate come from the Levy Order, so good daily sales records will carry over. Venura's venue and catering apps record every booking, quotation, invoice and payment on web, Android and iOS, which gives you a clean monthly sales figure to start each return from.

Catering levy (2% Tourism Levy): questions from Kenya