Who must file
Every person chargeable with income tax files a self-assessment return — individuals on Form ITF1, companies on Form ITF12. An individual whose only income is employment or pension income that has already had PAYE deducted is not required to file, though they may do so voluntarily. A nil return still has to be filed if you are within the net. Partners register separately and each holds their own TIN, and jointly owned rental property is remitted by both owners.
Tax year and deadline
The tax year runs 1 April to 31 March, but the deadline hangs off your own accounting date, not the tax year: the return and any balance of tax are due within 180 days — six months — after the end of your accounting year, and you choose that accounting date. MRA's September 2026 public notice puts it concretely: income tax was due 30 September 2026 for an accounting date of 31 March. Quarterly obligations run alongside: provisional tax by the 25th after each quarter on Form PTF1, fringe benefit tax within 14 days of each quarter on Form FBT 2, and residential rental income tax by the 20th after each quarter.
Filing step by step
- Make up accounts to your own accounting date. MRA does not want your financial statements — complete its Accounts Information Sheet for individuals or for companies and attach that instead.
- Fill in the self-assessment return, ITF1 for an individual or ITF12 for a company. It is a self-assessment, so you compute the tax yourself, and you must also compute and enter any penalty for late filing or insufficient provisional tax.
- File it in Msonkho Online — Taxpayer Login, then Submit a Return, and pick the income tax return and period from the Returns Summary — or hand it in at the Domestic Taxes office that holds your tax file.
- Sign the declaration that the return is complete and accurate. An individual signs personally; for a company a duly authorised manager signs. File even if the tax payable is nil.
- Pay the balance by the same date — the difference between the tax on the income you have declared and what you have already paid in provisional tax and PAYE. Generate a Payment Registration Number in My Tax Online (mra.mw/MyTaxOnline), choose your bank, and pay; MRA emails the receipt.
Penalties for filing or paying late
Beyond the late-filing penalty, the Tax Administration Act, 2021 charges separately for under-paying during the year. If the estimate of provisional income tax is below 90% of the tax finally due, section 86 adds a 20% penalty on the unpaid amount plus interest, and section 92(3) makes the penalty for failing to file a provisional return payable at the end of the financial year. Tax not paid on the due date attracts a 20% penalty plus interest at the prevailing bank lending rate plus 5% a year for each month or part month (section 87). A false or misleading statement in a return costs 30% of the tax shortfall, or 100% if made knowingly or recklessly; the penalty rises by 20% on a repeat within five years and falls by 20% if the error is disclosed voluntarily before a tax officer finds it (section 93). A currency point is K1,000.