Tag Archives: TOP TAX FIRMS IN UGANDA

Navigating Foreign Income Taxation in Uganda: Key Tax Insights on Offshore Asset holdings

In the last quarter of 2025, a significant number of Ugandans in the diaspora alongside resident High-Networth taxpayers with offshore interests received emails from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) conveying a directive that might be signaling the end of “Offshore Anonymity” for Ugandan Taxpayers

In the emails, URA informs taxpayers that it has received information indicating that “you have earned foreign income or gains” and that “Preliminary analysis indicates that one or more foreign financial accounts or assets associated with your name and TIN”

The taxpayer are then given seven days to review and regularize their tax affairs before commencement of a formal investigation.

This is not routine correspondence, but rather one that marks a new phase in Uganda’s tax administration, one defined by unprecedented financial transparency and access to foreign financial information regarding the commercial activities of taxpayers.

The notices confirm that Uganda has fully operationalized the global data-exchange framework built around the OECD’s Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAAC), following the Uganda Parliament’s enactment of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (Implementation) Act, 2023.

Under this framework, Foreign Jurisdictions volunteer taxpayer information on income generating asset holdings, transactions that might have resulted in taxable gains, emoluments subject to tax in Uganda, among other categories of information relevant to tax administration.

KRA Vs Sendy: Kenya’s High Court VAT Precedent Threatens East Africa’s Gig Economy and Digital Commerce Growth.

Kenya’s High Court has recently delivered a Key decision in the battle over VAT in the ride-hailing/digital platform economy, that risks far-reaching ripple effects across East Africa’s digital commerce landscape. 

The landmark decision fundamentally reclassifies digital platforms as primary suppliers of gig-economy services for VAT purposes. This brings them fully into the VAT net and forces gig workers/entrepreneurs and small merchants into VAT compliance, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the growth, structure, and taxation of the East African digital economy.

The immediate tax implication is that we now have two VATable transactions in every ride or delivery processed through a digital platform operating a similar business model. These are;

Supply from motor vehicle owner to tech platform (input VAT for the platform)

Supply from tech platform to end consumer (output VAT to the tax authorities on full final consideration paid by the end consumer)

This new reality is problematic from a commercial point of view, taking into consideration the nature and level of tax sophistication of most African economies.

The other immediate implication is that thousands of gig-economy participants have been hit with a VAT compliance shock overnight, and the reason is simple; e-commerce platforms lose input VAT if they trade with non-compliant taxpayers. Exposure to commercial activities of too many Non-VAT Traders or informal taxpayers makes the platform’s business model commercially unviable and wipes out margins.

ITR World Tax 2026 Rankings: MRT Tax among Top Tax Firms in Uganda.

We are delighted to share that MRT Tax has been ranked among the Top tax firms in Uganda in the newly released ITR World Tax 2026 rankings

In addition, the firm’s Managing Partner, Mark Ruhindi, has been individually recognized as a ‘Highly Regarded’ practitioner in General Corporate Tax – (The Highest Tax Leader Rating), underscoring his standing as one of Uganda and East Africa’s leading tax professionals.

This achievement follows MRT Tax’s earlier nomination for the “Tax Firm of the Year (Uganda)” Award at the International Tax Review (ITR) EMEA Tax Awards 2025—a ceremony that celebrates the most distinguished tax and transfer pricing professionals and teams across 33 jurisdictions in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

These milestones hold particular significance for us, being the youngest practice to attain recognition within this elite category — in a competitive market historically dominated by global accounting networks and long-standing decades old law firms.

East Africa Trade: Uganda’s Tax Appeals Tribunal clarifies on EAC Intra-Trade VAT

The Tax Appeals Tribunal has delivered a landmark decision that strikes at the heart of URA’s aggressive enforcement and over-reach tendencies and restores the much-needed balance in the taxpayer-taxman relationship.

(TRADE WORTH ESTABLISHMENTS LTD V URA TAT APPLICATION 338 OF 2024)

In perhaps the strongest language yet from the Tribunal against the revenue body, TAT observed:

“On the whole, we find that the Respondent acted not only unlawfully but also with impunity and in total abuse of their powers and authority… Rather than doing this [refund VAT unlawfully collected], the Respondent orchestrated a phoney scheme to deny the Applicant their refund – a taxpayer, who is the very reason for the Respondent’s existence.”

Citing its earlier decision in Canaan Sites Limited v URA, TAT further emphasises the ethical and legal obligation of URA to return taxes not legally due: “Where the Respondent collects taxes that are not legally owed, it is generally expected to refund those amounts to the taxpayer… it has an ethical and legal obligation to return those funds to maintain trust in the tax system.”

Uganda Revenue Authority goes after the Digital Economy: Payments Systems and third-Party Transaction Information in Tax Administration.

Whereas the digital economy is mostly composed of digital companies and the web-based commercial marketplace, the brick-and-mortar businesses are also covered since most now take payment through digital payment systems.

What this means is that digital payment systems now permeate nearly every sector, blurring the line between the traditional and digital economy.

The internet marketplace and the digital economy are data-driven and therefore I anticipate the next stage of the government’s tech-driven tax compliance enforcement campaign to be deployment of big data analytics and artificial intelligence in building taxpayer profiles using third-party payments and financial services information to flag transactions that would otherwise have escaped the tax net.

Sectors such as E-commerce, Gaming, Financial Services (fintech), and Telecoms process hundreds of thousands and for some, even millions of daily transactions.

Unlike a few years ago when tax authorities had no means of scrutinising such an
overwhelming volume of transactions and to assess tax upon each and every one including the tiniest of transactions.

Currently, Tax Authorities are able to rely on advanced data analytics and the deployment of artificial intelligence tools to track tax on even the smallest of transactions.

Uganda VAT E-INVOICING(EFRIS) Enforcement: Compliance Insights for Landlords and Tenants.

While initially criticised as premature and fought by taxpayers especially those under the KACITA umbrella, it appears the system is here to stay and has increasingly become the backbone of Uganda’s tax administration.

For commercial property landlords, who fall within the VAT net, strict EFRIS compliance marks a significant shift and fundamentally alters governance and tax reporting obligations for entities, which in turn poses risk to investments controlled under those entities.

The reason is simple; VAT administration directly intersects with income tax and rental tax compliance in a manner many lay taxpayers do not yet appreciate. The increased VAT scrutiny through EFRIS has a direct bearing on the landlord’s other tax compliance obligations under income tax and rental tax.

Landlords and property managers must therefore consider adjusting operating models to align with URA’s strict stance, as informal practices will expose them to heavier tax risk through deduction disallowances, penalties, additional tax assessments and a heavier professional fees burden.

DIGITAL SERVICES TAX IN UGANDA: KEY INSIGHTS

Whereas certain companies, especially the large digital companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google etc may or already procured registration with the URA for purposes of compliance under this law owing to their lucrative business to business contracts with large resident companies like banks and telecos, there are still countless transactions falling under this tax head from smaller firms which don’t sell as much into our market or which mostly deal with retail customers but who will simply choose not to register with URA and with the likely consequence that the consumers end up meeting this tax burden. The most obvious examples are the many audio streaming services and even social media platforms like facebook, which still makes money from Uganda even when it’s officially blocked.