By Naomi Musiimenta
The Youth for Tax Justice Network together with Uganda Revenue Authority held a training on tax compliance to educate small and medium enterprise (SMEs) owners on tax compliance in the bid to grow the local tax base today at the Fairway hotel.
Lead trainer Hawa Mbabazi, a tax compliance officer from URA, encouraged participants to be honest in their tax declarations for the body to help them effectively.
Mbabazi said that businesses that, for example, pay their taxes in time avoid a late fee charge of Uganda Shillings 200,000. He said one of the ways to ensure they are not late in payment is by taking advantage of the Electronic Fiscal Reciepting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) an online system to pay at their convenience.
The Youth for Tax Justice Network team lead Allan Murangira Muhereza said many of them have fallen foul of the tax body because of lack of the right information. He said many of them do not know how to appeal against decisions they think the body took unfairly.
Other members expressed ignorance on how to file their tax returns and appreciated the training for educating them on this.
Aleta Ogavo who runs Rena Beverages described the training as, “Really good. I can now file my monthly returns.” She said she found the training liberating as she would soon not need consultants to help her file her taxes.
Muhereza thanked URA for the training and said that the network intends to have four more sessions in different parts of the country reaching small business owners.
