By Kitts Mabonga
Kampala
The country’s tax body URA has intensified her efforts in looking out for possible new areas of taxes in a deliberate bid to raise resources that can be ploughed into the economic development agenda like provision of healthcare services, road infrastructure among others.
And as a result, it has unveiled and launched the new Voluntary disclosure (VD) for Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) program of which development follows Uganda’s commitment to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Forum as a member.
The new measure will allow the Uganda government to obtain details of undisclosed income from treaty partners and enforce assessment, collection of taxes and also prosecute offenders.
While launching the program at Serena hotel last week, the minister of finance Matia Kasaija who was represented by the deputy secretary to the treasury Patrick Ocailap said that URA was doing the best by seeking new avenues of collecting more taxes and urged the taxpayers to embrace the new program by complying in their tax obligation mandates as citizens.
The government welcomes such ventures being undertaken by URA in trying to increase its tax collection base because the country needs more resources in order to be in a better position of offering the necessary social services to the population’ noted Ocailap.
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The commissioner general URA John Rujoki Musinguzi told the stakeholders in attendance that URA will always offer avenues for dialogue with all taxpayers in order to ease compliance before deploying enforcement measures.
“Taxpayers are therefore advised to look-out for the chance to voluntarily re-align their tax affairs and avoid all potential legal battles that may cause disruption to their business undertakings.”
He revealed that so far, they have been able to recover 256Bn in the recent past ahead of the formal rolling out of the implementation of the program with proceeds accruing from penalties emanating from under declaration, outright tax default among other malpractices which won’t be accepted as enforcement shall soon get underway.
Currently, the program is being implemented in Uganda where a taxpayer voluntarily applies for the program and receives a certificate thereafter.
Some of the benefits of the program include avoidance of paying accumulated interest and penalties, providing a fresh start for the taxpayer, and opening room for dialogue with URA.