By Spy Uganda
Kampala: In a bid to boost tax collection and encourage companies to pay all taxes, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has urged all eligible tax payers to voluntarily declare the taxes they are supposed to pay, in order to avoid penalties once they are discovered.
The URA issued the announcement in a Public Notice dated August 6th, 2020, which they shared on all their social media platforms.
“URA is inviting all eligible taxpayers to VOLUNTARILY DISCLOSE [in writing] any tax that should’ve been declared or paid to the authority. Once you agree to pay the outstanding unpaid tax, you won’t be required to pay any interests/fine due to URA. #FfeBanno,” URA tweeted shortly after sharing the notice.
The Notice reads in part thus;
PUBLIC NOTICE ON VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE
The Commissioner General, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) would like to inform the General Public that pursuant to Section 66 (Ia) of the Tax Procedure Code Act 2014 as amended, a taxpayer who voluntarily discloses any tax that should have been declared to the Commissioner, may enter into an agreement with the Commissioner to pay the outstanding unpaid tax and that person shall not be required to pay any Interest or fine due.
Voluntary disclosure occurs where a taxpayer voluntarily discloses what ought to have been disclosed but was not declared or partially declared before being prompted by any action or threat of action on the Issue by URA such as:
(i) Tax investigation:
(ii) Request for tax information:
(iii) Tax advisory.
(iv) Tax health check/review
(v) Notice for tax audit:
(vi) Tax query, or
(vii) Compliance visit by URA officers.
A voluntary disclosure shall be in writing. It must be complete and accurate highlighting any previous inaccuracies, incomplete or non-disclosure of tax.
Such disclosure shall be duly signed by the taxpayer and shall be accompanied with relevant information such as evidence relating to the omission(s) and proof of payment of the principal tax rebel to the disclosure
Please note that the above provision will not apply once a nondisclosure is discovered through the intensive tax compliance activities which URA plans to undertake soon.
Taxpayers are therefore encouraged to take benefit of this provision by fulfilling the requirements stated herein above at the earliest. For any assistance call our free line 0800117000 or 0417444602 (not toll free) or email us at services@urago.ug,
