What the TPIN is
The TPIN is the number Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) assigns to a taxpayer in Malawi. It follows you across every tax you deal with: VAT, income tax and withholding. Businesses that pay you will ask for it before they release payment, because they report their suppliers to Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) by this number.
Who needs one
Everyone in business. The Taxation Act and the VAT Act require owners of businesses, individuals and companies alike, to register for tax "regardless of the size of business, nature of business or location". MRA's TIN leaflet cites section 87(1) of the Taxation Act. Since the Tax Administration Act, 2021 came into force in 2025, section 21 is the operative rule: a person who by carrying on a business becomes potentially liable to tax must apply for registration, and anyone else who earns income or starts an income-earning activity must apply within 15 days of earning it or starting. If you already hold a TIN you do not re-apply. Registration is free, at Msonkho Online or any MRA office. You get one TIN, it is personal to you, it is not transferable, and it covers every tax. MRA calls it a TPIN in its guidance and a TIN on its screens; it is the same number.
How to register, step by step
- Open mra.mw, click the TIN Application button on the Msonkho Online banner, then Register Now. Fill in the sign-up form — put only your first name in the First Name field — and submit. Check your email, including junk and spam, and click the confirmation link to activate the account.
- Go back to mra.mw, click TIN Application again and log in with that email and password. This opens the registration wizard.
- Work through the tabs in order, clicking Next at the foot of each: Personal details (category of individual, name, gender, marital status, date and place of birth, nationality, country of residence, reason for TPIN application); Contacts (the first one entered is your primary contact); Address details (address type, building, house number, street, town or city — click Update then Next); Identifications (the National ID is the primary ID in Malawi; foreigners use an immigration permit or passport); Occupation (status, category of role, precise category of role, gross receipts and turnover).
- On the Attachments tab click +Choose, browse to a scan of your National ID, click Open, enter the document type and reference number, then Add. Review the Summary tab, correct anything wrong, and click Submit. MRA emails your primary address an Application Reference Number (ARN). Track progress with the Check Application Status link, entering the ARN.
- MRA vets and cross-checks the application, and an Approving Officer authorises it. The Commissioner General must issue the number within 14 days of receiving a successful application, and it is formally issued when he serves you with a TIN certificate. Then create your filing account: mra.mw, Taxpayer Login, Register Now, complete the Taxpayer Portal Registration form (taxpayer type, TIN, username, password), activate it from the emailed link, and log in to file and pay.
How to find or check a TPIN
MRA publishes no public TPIN search. Its four online validators — MRA Document Validation, Form 12 Validation, WHTEC/TCC Validation and the QR code on an EIS receipt — check documents, not numbers, and none of them will find a TPIN from a name. While your application is still open, use Check Application Status inside Msonkho Online with your Application Reference Number. Your number itself is on the TIN certificate the Commissioner General serves on you when it is issued. The Forgotten your username link at msonkho-online.mra.mw asks for your TIN, so it recovers a portal username and is no help if the TIN is what you have lost. For a lost TPIN, ring the toll-free line 672, WhatsApp 0996278690, email callcentre@mra.mw, or go to the nearest Domestic Taxes office. If any detail on your TIN certificate changes you must tell the Commissioner General in writing within 21 days.