JOSHUA KATO: A Closer Look at Uganda’s taxation deadlines and essential Information

As a taxpayer, you have a duty to; – file and pay taxes on time, keep proper records, be honest in your tax dealings and transactions, and to be co-operative. 

URA’s prime role in Uganda’s economic development and governance is to manage and enforce tax-related policies and regulations through revenue collection, tax administration, tax policy formulation, customs control, enforcement and compliance, revenue forecasts etc. This is done through the current self-assessment regime where taxpayers are responsible for determining their own tax liability, filing tax returns, and making the appropriate tax payments based on their own assessments. This system promotes flexibility and convenience, greater accuracy as well as reduced administrative burden.

It is very important to keep proper business records to help you in preparing your tax returns to avoid estimated assessment, monitor your business and prepare your financial statements, track your deductible expenses and as well as Pay only the right amounts of taxes for your business.

Let us take a look at the different taxes and their deadlines applicable in Uganda.

Please note that failure to comply with the deadlines and the registration rules is penalized as per the Tax Procedures Code Act. Failure to pay Income tax i.e. provisional or final, any penal tax, or tax withheld or required to be withheld on or before the due date is penalized with an Interest at a rate equal to 200,000 or 2% per month whichever is higher, on the amount unpaid calculated from the date on which payment was due until the payment date. Similarly, failure to file Value Added Tax before or on the due date is punishable with a penal tax of 200,000 or 2% on the unpaid tax, whichever is higher calculated from the due date until the payment date.

Failure to apply for registration for Income Tax, Value Added Tax, or Local Excise Duty subjects you to a fine not exceeding Ugx. 3,000,000 or imprisonment not exceeding six years or both on conviction if the failure/act was done deliberately. On the other hand, failure to pay Local Service Duty by the due date subjects you to an interest of 2% compounded on the outstanding duty.

Much as all these are in place, they’re put to instill discipline in the taxpayers and also to enforce government collection of revenue through taxes. Uganda wants to achieve a target where the national budget is fully funded by domestic sources. You have round-table options with the URA to pay your tax due in installments, by applying to the URA Debt Management Unit.

Since Uganda is on a self-assessment regime, failure to exercise self-assessment, filing and payment of taxes leaves URA with no option but to assess you for the tax due. At times when you disagree with the URA in principle or otherwise, the law provides for an objection within 45 days of receipt of the notice of assessment you should object to the URA. A notice of objection is submitted via the URA online portal along with supporting evidence which includes an objection letter that contains the detailed grounds for the objection. When you miss the deadline, you lose your rights!

A URA objection decision may be given by – allowing your objection in full, allowing it in part or refusing the objection in its entirety. Should you still aggrieved with the objection decision, you may lodge an appeal with the TAT, the court of first instance for all tax related matters within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the objection decision. A taxpayer who appeals to the TAT is required to pay 30% of the tax in dispute or that part of tax assessed not in dispute, whichever is greater to the URA before lodging the appeal. However, a recent Constitutional Court decision held that the mandatory payment denied taxpayers the right to a fair hearing and should not be enforced in cases arising out of principle.

As a tax practitioner, I have experienced how costly yet lengthy litigation can be. I would advocate for an out-of-court settlement even when a tax matter has been registered with TAT.

Note: There is no better early Christmas gift for your business from the URA like the amendment stated in the Tax Procedures Code Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023. In this amendment, “The Commissioner shall waive the taxpayer’s liability for interest and penalty if the taxpayer voluntarily pays, by 31 December 2023, the principal tax outstanding as of 30 June 2023”

“The Commissioner shall waive the taxpayer’s liability for interest and penalty on a pro-rata basis if the taxpayer voluntarily pays, by 31 December 2023, part of the principal tax outstanding as of 30 June 2023”. As a prudent taxpayer, you have a golden opportunity to clear your ledger and come to good agreeable terms with the URA before the end of 2023. 

The writer is a Chartered Accountant with Uganda Baati Limited