The Commissioner Domestic Taxes at Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Sarah Chelangat has highlighted the scope of domestic taxes and what revenue mobilisation initiatives the tax body is undertaking to achieve the target.
URA is tasked with mobilising revenue for national development efficiently and transparently. This financial year, the tax body is expected to collect Shs 25.5 trillion, a target that shall increase to Shs 29.3 trillion in the financial year 2023/24.
On Monday, URA members of the management executive committee headed by Commissioner General John Musinguzi, together with Kampala City Traders Association leadership represented by Issa Sekitto featured on NBS spotlight to discuss the mandate, challenges and plans of the authority.
Chelangat said domestic taxes are at the cornerstone of the URA mandate, noting that if people continue to buy products locally manufactured in Uganda, it will be one way of driving the domestic tax mobilisation agenda.
“This money will still come back into the revenue basket, our domestic revenue basket as taxes that we shall collect,” she said.
She called upon taxpayers to work together with the authority, encouraging tax payers to continue paying taxes which she said is very important towards the country’s development.
“We have a myriad of tax heads like Value Added Tax (VAT), income tax which encompasses withholding tax, PAYE among others and non-tax revenues that we collect from other MDAs like school fees, driving permits fees,” she said.
She said tax is supposed to enable one's business but not cripple it, adding that it only becomes burdensome as a result of accumulated penal tax from noncompliance.
“If you pay your taxes you are serving your country and liberating it from borrowing. As tax collectors, we want fairness in the collection of paying taxes. If everyone is able to pay taxes, that will be good,” she said.
She said domestic tax is currently mandated to collect 63% of the total URA target, adding that the tax body is looking at mobilisation taxes from different payers
“We have income taxes that come from businesses, we have rental tax from property, we have employment taxes, we have the presumptive taxes, and we also have withholding tax. A good tax system is supposed to be convenient, flexible and should be certain,” she said.
For compliant taxpayers, she said they normally exempt them from withholding tax, adding that in domestic tax, they also look at nontax revenue which they collect from other government MDAs.
"URA also collects rental tax and as such we have created a dedicated unit to look into these taxpayers. We're using IT solutions that help us map out where to go and as a result have grown the rental tax collections,” she said.
Chelangat said the tax body is also looking at managing its ledger reconciliation and has handled about 60% of the taxpayers.
“We have been having issues with our ledgers but we are in touch with our customers. A team has been hired to address this. We are calling on all our taxpayers to come and engage with us. We are also doing tax education deliberately,” she said.
Chelangat said they have also rolled out the Alternative Dispute Resolution to help the tax body manage its conflict resolution processes without dragging cases through lengthy court processes.
"Tax is mandated by the law & much as it's never nice to pay taxes, it's the truest form of patriotism. I would like to appreciate our taxpayers who have chosen to walk the compliance journey with us, thank you for paying your taxes,” she said.
