Nairobi, May 26 -- Kenya plans to impose tax on royalties earned by digital payment platforms and software providers, a move that could raise the cost of using card schemes such as Visa and enterprise software packages such as Microsoft.

New proposals in the Finance Bill, 2026 expand the definition of royalties - payments made for the use of intellectual property (IP) such as copyrights and patents - to include digital platforms, software systems and payment infrastructure.

Such payments are treated as income and attract withholding tax of between five percent and 20 percent.

The changes would bring processing fees charged by card providers such as Visa and Mastercard, software licences from firms such as Microsoft, Kaspersky and Cellu...