Case file ITA-2017-BETTING15
Withholding tax of 15% on winnings from betting
Highest rung reached: Reported yieldLaw: read in a statutory textWithholding · Revenue
1 point pending verification
- The text of s. 118C before 1 July 2017: Act 20 of 2016 lists a repeal of s. 118C, and Act 10 of 2017 substituted a new one.
Law
- Principal Act
- Income Tax Act (Cap 338), enacted as Act 11 of 1997
- Amending Act
- Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2017 (Act 10 of 2017) (verified)
- Provision, revised numbering (2023 revision)
- s. 131 and Sch. 4, Part XI
- Provision, numbering before the revision
- s. 118C and Third Schedule, Part X of Cap. 340
- Principal Act dates
- commencement 1997-07-01
- Amending Act in force from
- 1 July 2017 (assented 13 June 2017; gazetted 30 June 2017)
- Tax heads and taxpayers affected
- Income tax, Withholding tax. People who win bets, and the betting companies that pay them.
- Status
- Legal: in force. Implementation: implemented.
The wording in force
as at 2017-07-01
118C. Payments for winnings of sports betting or pool betting. A person who makes payments for winnings of sports betting or pool betting shall withhold tax on the gross amount of the payment, at the rate prescribed in Part X of the Third Schedule to this Act. [Third Schedule, Part X] The withholding tax rate applicable to winnings from sports betting and pool betting is 15% Verified law: Wording or a date read in a statutory text, with the version and page named.[ACT-ITA-2017-10, PDF page 5, ss. 7 and 11 (PDF pages 5 and 7)]
Redline pending verification
In plain English
Interpretation: A reading of the evidence, by a named source or by this register. Whoever pays out betting winnings must withhold a share of the payment for URA.
Reason
15 percent withholding tax on winnings from gambling
Official forecast: What MoFPED or URA said a measure would raise, or why it was made, before the year began. [URA-ARR-1617, printed page 42, PDF page 45]
Policy objective as classified by the register: Revenue. Intended revenue direction: raise.
Revenue
- Rung 1
Observed change
Observed: A value or event as an official source records it, copied without calculation.- Collections for the tax heads affected are drawn on the story page, from URA's annual data books. Before and after is never presented as this amendment's effect.
- Rung 2
Official forecast
Official forecast: What MoFPED or URA said a measure would raise, or why it was made, before the year began.Missing. No official forecast for this measure was found in the budget documents or URA reports read. The budget speech and the Finance Bill memorandum for the year would settle it (MoFPED).
- Rung 3
Reported yield
Reported yield: What URA attributes to a measure after the year. An official attribution, not a causal estimate.- URA reports UGX 11.69 bn for FY2017/18.[URA-ARR-1718, printed page 22, PDF page 27]
- Rung 4
Static or modelled estimate
Modelled estimate: A mechanical or model calculation, with every assumption shown.Missing. No estimate made. A static estimate needs the taxable base before the change (volumes or values by product), which the register does not hold.
- Rung 5
Causal estimate
Causal estimate: An effect identified by a stated research design against a comparison group.Missing. No study with a defensible identification strategy was found for this amendment.
- Rung 6
Wider impact
Interpretation: A reading of the evidence, by a named source or by this register.Missing. No source read for the register describes effects on prices, compliance cost, investment or equity.
What is known, what is uncertain, and what would settle it
- Known: reported yield.
- Uncertain: official forecast, static or modelled estimate, causal estimate, wider impact; and 1 open point below.
Pathway
From the amendment to its wider consequences. Select a link to read what supports it. No money is drawn along the chain, because no flow along it is measured.
Verified: A source read for the register documents this link.
The provision is read in the ULII consolidated text.
- amendment: verified. The provision is read in the ULII consolidated text.
- mechanism: verified. Tax collected at source by the payer.
- implementation: verified. URA reports performance for the measure, so it was applied.
- response: no evidence. No source read describes how taxpayers responded.
- outcome: verified. URA reports a yield. It is an official attribution, not a causal estimate.
- wider: no evidence. No source read measures wider effects. No evidence found is not evidence of no effect.
Consequences
Graded against ten criteria. No composite score: a reform that raises money can still be regressive or costly to comply with, and one that loses revenue can serve a legitimate aim. Revenue effectiveness is graded by a stated rule; the rest only where a source speaks to them.
What worked
Implementation quality
Withheld by the betting companies that pay out winnings, the tax was booked in its first year and named by URA among the year's highly performing measures. No forecast was printed, so this grades collection, not the size of the yield.[URA-ARR-1718, printed page 22, PDF page 27]
Effective
What did not
No criterion graded ineffective or counterproductive on the evidence read.
Open or not evaluated
Revenue effectiveness
No pair of official forecast and reported yield in shillings.(graded by rule)
Not evaluated
Legal clarity and certainty
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Administrative feasibility
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Compliance cost
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Efficiency
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Investment and competitiveness
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Vertical and horizontal equity
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Distributional effect
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Unintended consequences
No source read for the register speaks to this criterion.
Not evaluated
Afterlife
Linked records
- This record reverses Withholding tax on winnings from sports and pool betting repealed. The 2016 Act repealed the withholding tax on betting winnings; the 2017 Act put a 15% withholding tax back. (verified)[ACT-ITA-2016-20, PDF page 5]
- Withholding tax on winnings narrowed to betting, gaming removed amends this record. The 2023 Act substitutes section 118C again, confining it to betting. (verified)[ACT-ITA-2023-25, PDF page 15]
Later changes, cases and practice
- Verified law: Wording or a date read in a statutory text, with the version and page named.From 1 July 2018 Act 7 of 2018 substituted s. 118C again, widening it from winnings of sports betting or pool betting to all winnings of betting or gaming, at the rate in Part X of the Third Schedule.[ACT-ITA-2018-7, PDF page 8, s. 15]
No Tax Appeals Tribunal or court decision on this provision is on record yet. That is not evidence that none exists.
Pending verification
- The text of s. 118C before 1 July 2017: Act 20 of 2016 lists a repeal of s. 118C, and Act 10 of 2017 substituted a new one.
Sources
URA-ARR-1617
Annual Revenue Report FY 2016/17
Uganda Revenue Authority. 2017. Covers FY2016/17, with the FY2017/18 outlook.
Desktop/Personal/URA DATA BOOKS AND REVENUE REPORTS/Annual Revenue Report FY 2016-17.pdf
Status: verified. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 45 (PDF).
The FY2017/18 outlook (PDF page 45, printed page 42) names the policy measures and their expected yield. No measure-level performance table was found in this report.
URA-ARR-1718
Annual Revenue Report FY 2017/18
Uganda Revenue Authority. 2018. Covers FY2017/18.
Desktop/Personal/URA DATA BOOKS AND REVENUE REPORTS/Annual Revenue Report FY 2017-18.pdf
Status: verified. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 27 (PDF).
Table 9 read from the page image (PDF page 27, printed page 22).
ULII-ITA-2024
Income Tax Act (Chapter 338), version of 23 December 2024
Uganda Legal Information Institute (ULII) and Laws.Africa, from the Law Reform Commission revision. 2024-12-23. Covers Text in force 23 December 2024 to 30 June 2025.
Desktop/Personal/Tax Legislation and URA Returns/Income Tax Act Cap 338.pdf
Status: verified. No page of this source is confirmed for this record by the audit; it is cited for context.
Read in full with pdftotext. Lists amending Acts with commencement dates on PDF page 8. This version predates any 2025 amendment.
ACT-ITA-2017-10
Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2017 (Act 10 of 2017)
Parliament of Uganda, published by the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation. 2017-06-30. Covers Assented 13 June 2017; in force 1 July 2017.
Desktop/Tax legislation Amendment Acts/Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2017.pdf
Status: verified. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 5 (PDF).
Acts Supplement No. 7 to the Uganda Gazette No. 37, Volume CX, dated 30 June 2017. Read from the text layer of the copy supplied by the author (8 pages).
ACT-ITA-2018-7
Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2018 (Act 7 of 2018)
Parliament of Uganda, published by the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation. 2018-06-29. Covers Assented 21 June 2018; in force 1 July 2018.
Desktop/Tax legislation Amendment Acts/Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2018.pdf
Status: verified. No page of this source is confirmed for this record by the audit; it is cited for context.
Acts Supplement No. 2 to the Uganda Gazette No. 33, Volume CXI, dated 29 June 2018. Read from the text layer of the copy supplied by the author (10 pages).