By our reporter
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has moved to investigate former Bank of Uganda Director in charge of supervision Justine Bagyenda for allegedly evading taxes worth shs7 billion.
Bagyenda who was recently fired in a restructuring process at the Central Bank but has since refused to hand over office, has allegedly been evading tax for several years according to a whistleblower. If it turns out true, tax evasion is criminal and it would be a blow to the reputation of the person with Bagyenda’s standing.
Recently, Bagyenda who also once headed the financial intelligence agency came to spotlight after details of her banks accounts containing over shs20 billion were exposed to the public. She also owns over 20 posh properties worth billions of shillings which are said to attract tax.
However, when URA compiled a list of top tax payers in Uganda in October on which several city business personalities appeared as the top income tax payers, Bagyenda’s name was nowhere to be seen.
Some of the top tax payers that URA listed included individual rental income tax payers like Sudhir Ruparelia, Muhammed Hussein, Karim Hirji, Virani Aisha, Godfrey Kirumira, Lubega Charles among others.
After realizing that Bagyenda is extremely wealthy but her tax remittance schedule is greatly lacking, URA operatives have reportedly launched an audit investigation into her operations so as to ascertain why she has been evading taxes, with intent to make her cough all the taxes she hasn’t remitted for the period under review.
“The taxpayer owns a number of properties in several areas throughout the country of which a sample list is attached. Some of them are rental properties from which rental income may bot be declared to the tax authority,” part of the Justification for the Non-compliance Report reads.
“The person has significant amount of fixed deposits in both Uganda Shillings and Dollars of which the source of income is not just salary. I suspect this is undeclared income accumulated by the person over the years,” the report continues.
“Based on the information available, there is income approximating Uganda Shillings 18 Billion, which could result into a tax liability of Uganda Shillings 7,123.496,383,” the report further indicates.
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