Meta Announces 5% Withholding Tax on Payments to Kenyan Creators

Meta has announced a new tax adjustment that will directly affect Kenyan content creators earning through its platforms.

In a notice on Thursday, November 20, the company informed creators that payments made to them will now be subjected to a 5% withholding tax which will be remitted to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

"Starting 1 Jan 2025, Kenya Tax law requires all businesses to deduct and remit taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for any payments made to creators located in Kenya.

"As a result, Meta will deduct 5% withholding tax from all payments made to you; and the same would also be reflected in the remittance advice issued to you by Meta," the notice read.

Meta explained that the new deduction will start being applied to all creator payments beginning December 2025, and the creators will receive only the net amount after these deductions.

"Beginning December 2025, all payments made will be subject to 5% creator withholding tax (in addition to any other withholding taxes applicable) and the net amount after tax will be paid to you," the notice added.

Meta added that creators will be able to track the withheld tax through official records provided by the company and the government portal.

"This amount deducted will also be reflected in the remittance advice issued to you. You will be receiving the Tax deduction certificate through the government portal," the notice further read.

Elsewhere, this comes months after Meta revealed statistics of data the government sought from it regarding the accounts held by Kenyans on its platforms. 

In its Transparency Center report, it was revealed that the government made 23 requests to Meta between January and June 2024.

According to the report, 19 of those requests were made for legal purposes, while 3 requests were cited as emergency disclosure requests.

Notably, the social media company indicated that the January-June data targeted 37 accounts, adding that 43.5 percent of the requests by the governments were honoured during that period.

According to Meta, most governments seek information on social media accounts in cases where there are investigations of a crime, such as kidnappings.

"Meta responds to government requests for data in accordance with applicable law and our terms of service. Each and every request we receive is carefully reviewed for legal sufficiency, and we may reject or require greater specificity on requests that appear overly broad or vague," the report read.

Between July to December 2024, the government made 12 requests targeting 18 account holders.

The majority of the requests were for legal processes (9), while the remaining 3 were emergency disclosure requests.

Only 33 per cent of the requests were honoured by Meta.

"Meta scrutinizes every government request and produces only the information that is narrowly tailored to respond to each request.

"Depending on the request, Meta may produce Basic subscriber information, such as name, length of service, payment information, email addresses, and recent login/logout IP addresses. Records pertaining to account activity, such as message headers and IP addresses," the report added.