The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) has appointed the former Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority, Ms. Mary Baine as its new Executive Secretary, effective 1 July 2025. Ms. Baine succeeds Mr. Logan Wort, who has served as ATAF’s Executive Secretary since its establishment in 2009. ATAF) is a platform that brings together African tax administrations to work towards promoting efficient and effective tax systems that contribute to the sustainable development of African nations. Ms. Baine brings a wealth of leadership experience and a deep commitment to advancing fair, effective, and inclusive tax systems across the African continent. Before this…
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Uganda Revenue Authority Commissioner General, John Rujoki Musinguzi has released net tax collections for the half-year from July to December 2024 recorded at UGX 15 trillion against a target of UGX 14 trillion registering a surplus of UGX 322 billion and a performance rate of 102 percent. The Commissioner General, while at the half-year revenue performance press briefing noted for the Financial Year (FY) 2024/25, URA was given a net revenue target of UGX 31 trillion of which 48% representing UGX 15 trillion, was to be collected in the period July – Dec 2024 and 52% of the target, that…
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Income tax primarily relates to profits or gains arising from business activities, property ownership and employment. While there are general principles applied in determining what is taxable, overall, a tax rate is applied to a gain. In this regard, items designated for business otherwise referred to as stock in trade are pivotal in determining whether there is a gain or not. Therefore, there is a distinction between assets held for a business, investments which yield taxable income and private property the sale of which is conventionally agreed should not be taxed. The kind of private property which should not be…
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Weeks back, I read a tweet that went like this; “I asked some boda guy why he parked within a roundabout, and he said you can’t be orderly in an environment where everyone is out of order.” And a response under that tweet was something like this; “That’s right. It’s difficult to maintain legality as an individual when illegality is the norm. Similarly when corruption is the norm the uncorrupt get ejected from the system.” This article is not about bodas or corrupt politicians but about corporate corruption and kickbacks in corporate dealings and I am trying to answer one…
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The Income Tax(Amendment) Act 2023 has repealed Section 27A of the Principal Act which provided for initial allowances as a fiscal policy geared at enabling investors in industrialisation and manufacturing to recover costs of acquiring plant and machinery much faster than if they had to recover those costs only through capital deductions allowed through traditional depreciation. A depreciable asset is any plant or machinery, or any implement, utensil or similar article, which is wholly or partly used, or held ready for use, by a person in the production of income included in gross income and which is likely to lose…
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Capital gains arise when you sell an asset for more than you originally bought it. There are two kinds of assets in the Income Tax Act; a depreciable asset and a business asset. Depreciable assets are plant or machinery, or any implement, utensil or similar article, which is wholly or partly used or held ready for use, by a person in the production of income and which is likely to lose value because of wear and tear, or obsolescence. Common examples include computers, furniture and fittings, motor vehicles, plant and machinery. A business asset is one that is used or…
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The Tax Procedures Code (Amendment Bill) 2023 which was published in the Gazette of 30th March 2023 has many novel amendments but this commentary focuses on the proposed amendment to Section 42 of the Act. Section 42 empowers the Commissioner to require any person by notice in writing, whether or not liable for tax to furnish within the time specified in the notice any information that may be stated in the notice. This Section is couched in such strong terms as evidenced in clause (4) which states that; “This section has effect despite- any law relating to privilege or the public interest with respect to the giving of information…
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The Tax Procedures Code (Amendment) Bill 2023 has a number of provisions that attempt to correct the complications and injustices related to the waiver of penalties and interest that has been enacted since 2017. The proposed amendment to Section 39 of the Principal Act reads; “(4) For the avoidance of doubt interest due and payable under the tax law as at 1st July 2017 exceeds the aggregate of the principal tax and penal tax the interest in excess of the aggregate is waived” There are three issues with this proposal; The words ‘for the avoidance of doubt’ have been used in…
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The Income Tax Bill published on 30th March 2023 is spectacular in that it attempts to make dramatic reforms in tax. Apart from doing away with the incentive for investors called initial allowance (50% of the cost base of an eligible property in a radius of 50km outside Kampala and 20% within that radius), it has introduced a wider-ranging tax on digital transactions. Of the proposed reforms, perhaps one that will most likely have wide-ranging effects, if not checked by Parliament, is the redesigning of the policy on the sale of assets which has been upgraded from taxing business assets…
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