By Felix Oketcho
Nakawa, Kampala: It was an exciting moment today as Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) held its 2nd edition of e-Bomba Ya Business Summit 2021 at its headquarters in Nakawa, a capital city suburb.
The summit attracted genius business moguls and real estate entrepreneurs including; tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia-CEO Ruparelia Group of Companies, Judy Rugasira-CEO Knight Frank, Assistant Commissioner Research & Innovation at URA Ms.Irene Mbabazi Irumba and Shirley Kongai-President Association of Real Estates Agents, Uganda.
READ ALSO: Tycoon Sudhir To Tip Ugandans On Real Estate Investment At URA’s e-Bomba Summit
Sharing his views in a two-hour summit moderated by NTV Uganda’s Frank Walusimbi, Sudhir lectured Ugandans that Real Estate has the power to bulldoze through biting inflation which in fact many sectors can’t thus urging investors not to take the business for granted.
However, Sudhir cautioned investors against borrowing to start the real estate business. The entrepreneur who built Ruparelia Group brick by brick says;
“First, try and grow according to the cash flow you have and are creating. It is probably the best option. Because the truth is said, opportunities come all the time, especially when you have good cash flow. Take those opportunities.”
In the same vein, the tycoon informed Ugandans interested in the real estate business that so long as you have made the right plan, over the years your building or land value will grow massively.
“Allow some form of organic growth. So long as you have a good amount of cash flow coming in, you mainly need to focus on the right location and the right plan, that’s all,” says Sudhir adding, ”just invest and plan right.”
Sudhir in fact believes condominiums are the future of housing in Kampala. ”Land in cities is getting more expensive, many are resorting to condos. The future I see is people will have upcountry homes and only do apartments in cities.”
On her part, Ms.Shirley Kongai revealed that the Ugandan real estate sector is one of the safest businesses to venture into due to its ability to overcome inflation and other financial crises.
However, Ms.Kongai says, ”Uganda’s real estate business has both professional/formal and unprofessional/informal realtors. It is largely unregulated so it’s brokers and realtors enjoying the fruits of the sector.”
On thereother hand, Judy Rugasira cautioned property developers that before thinking about the business, they should first make sure they have enough finances to avoid getting stuck along the way.
”In Uganda building is not easy at all, its very expensive, me i would urge property developers to make sure they have enough funds required to cater for material purchase among other expenses before starting to built…because building takes years, so if you don’t have an upright finance source, you may get stuck along the way,” noted Ms.Judy.
Taking you to the taxation world, URA’s ”humble faced” Irene Mbabazi Irumba a seasoned tax administrator cleared some confusion and misinformation on taxation of rental income, VAT among other taxes.
She revealed that rental income which is levied under the income tax act is taxed separately from business income and it arises from leasing/letting of immovable property in Uganda.
Ms.Mbabazi however, cautioned those playing hide and seek games when it comes to paying tax saying URA has all the required technology to locate every business operating without paying tax.
”We inform everyone operating a business in Uganda to voluntarily come and get a TIN and start paying taxes because we even have all the tactics required to hunt them in case they continue operating in hiding mode,” warned Ms.Mbabazi.
