(NAIROBI, KENYA) – Google will begin withholding 5% of earnings paid to Kenyan content creators from October 2026, matching a policy already in force at Meta Platforms. The move forms part of Kenya’s push to collect tax from digital platforms that monetise content.
The US technology company has told YouTube creators to submit their Kenya Revenue Authority personal identification numbers by 1st October. Payments will be held for creators who fail to comply, although earnings will continue to accrue.
Google said the 5% Kenya tax will first apply to September 2026 earnings paid out in October 2026. The deduction will be made on finalised YouTube earnings along with any applicable US taxes.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, started withholding the 5% tax from payments to Kenyan creators in January this year.
Kenya is expanding its tax base through the digital economy as it seeks to reduce reliance on borrowing. The Income Tax Act requires digital platforms to submit 5 percent on advertising revenue payments to video, blog and podcast creators.
Google and Meta are the only tech firms in Kenya that share part of the revenue earned from placing ads in creators’ videos. The companies remit cash monthly to creators’ bank accounts. Creators must account for these deductions when filing annual tax returns.
YouTube pays Kenyan creators for ads placed in videos on its main feed or the vertical video tab called Shorts. For revenue from YouTube Premium subscriptions, where users watch content without ads, the company pays creators based on watch time for their channels.
Creators have been advised to keep records updated to comply with the law and ensure smooth payouts while Kenya strengthens oversight of digital content monetisation.
To qualify for monetisation, a YouTube account must have 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days. From February next year, creators will need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours over the previous 12 months or 20 million qualified Shorts views over 90 days.
Meta began monetising content in Kenya in 2024. It pays for ads that play before, during or after Facebook videos and its short form vertical video tab, Reels. To qualify, creators must have at least 5,000 followers and reach 60,000 total minutes of view time in two months.
Under YouTube and Meta revenue sharing models, both platforms take 45 percent, while 55 percent is paid out to creators.
Kenya initially proposed a 15 percent withholding tax on digital content monetisation. After public pushback, the rate was cut to 5 percent for resident creators when the final Finance Act 2023 took effect. Non resident content creators are taxed at 20 percent.
The Kenya Revenue Authority has been working to bring digital economy earnings into the tax net. The authority estimates the digital content market in Kenya is worth billions of shillings annually.
At current rates, for every KES 100,000 paid to a Kenyan creator, the tax withheld would be KES 5,000 ($34.48 / £27.40 / €31.75). For earnings of KES 1 million, the deduction would be KES 50,000 ($344.83 / £274.00 / €317.50).
The October deadline gives creators roughly one month to update their tax details in the AdSense for YouTube system. Google has said payments will stop until a verified personal identification number is provided.
Kenya’s digital economy has grown quickly, with thousands of young people earning income from platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. The government sees this as a new source of revenue for the national budget.
Creators who earn income from multiple platforms must ensure each platform has their correct tax details. Failure to provide the personal identification number to any platform that requires it could lead to frozen payments.
