Case file ITA-2017-RENTEST
Minister empowered to prescribe estimates of rent for rental tax
Highest rung reached: Official forecastLaw: read in a statutory textAdministration · Compliance
1 point pending verification
- Whether any statutory instrument of rent estimates was made and approved by Parliament under s. 5(6).
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. 5(4) to (6)
- Provision, numbering before the revision
- s. 5(4) to (7) 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, Rental tax. Landlords who do not file, or whose returns are contested.
- Status
- Legal: in force. Implementation: pending verification.
| Section A: The law | |
|---|---|
| Amending Act | Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2017 (Act 10 of 2017) |
| In force from | 1 July 2017 |
| Assent | 13 June 2017 |
| Section B: What the law said before | |
| The wording before and after is set out in the redline below. | |
| *** END OF CHANGE SLIP *** | |
The redline
as at 2017-06-30
Not in the Act before this amendment: the amending Act inserted the provision.[ACT-ITA-2017-10, PDF page 3, s. 3]
as at 2017-07-01
Inserted: (4) For the purposes of assessing rental tax under this section, the Minister shall, by statutory instrument, prescribe estimates of rent based on the rating of the rental property in a specific location. (5) A Statutory Instrument made under subsection (4), shall only apply to a person who fails to file a return in accordance with subsection (1) or whose return is misleading on the face of it and has been contested by the Commissioner. (6) A statutory instrument made under this section shall come into force after approval by Parliament. (7) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, all rental agreements shall be executed and effected in Uganda shillingsVerified law: Wording or a date read in a statutory text, with the version and page named.[ACT-ITA-2017-10, PDF page 3, s. 3]
Act 10 of 2017 inserted subsections (4) to (7). Subsection (7), requiring rental agreements to be in Uganda shillings, came with the same section.
In plain English
Interpretation: A reading of the evidence, by a named source or by this register. Where a landlord does not file, or files a misleading return, the Minister can set estimates of rent by location, once Parliament approves them.
Reason
Improve rental income tax collections by empowering the Minister to determine rental income tax in specific geographical areas
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: Compliance. Intended revenue direction: raise.
Revenue
Amendment-level revenue contribution not reliably quantified.
- 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.- URA: UGX 174.63 bn expected in FY2019/20 (Rental income tax collection solution by RippleNami).[URA-ARR-1920, printed page 53, PDF page 60, Annex 3, item A3.0]
- Rung 3
Reported yield
Reported yield: What URA attributes to a measure after the year. An official attribution, not a causal estimate.- URA prints an achievement rate of 0 percent for FY2019/20 but no figure in shillings.[URA-ARR-1920, printed page 53, PDF page 60, Annex 3, item A3.0]
- 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.- URA expected a yield in FY2019/20 from a rental income tax collection solution by RippleNami and recorded none, citing delayed implementation.[URA-ARR-1920, printed page 44, PDF page 51]
What is known, what is uncertain, and what would settle it
- Known: official forecast, reported yield, wider impact.
- Uncertain: static or modelled estimate, causal estimate; 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. A change in how tax is assessed or enforced, not in what is owed.
- implementation: no evidence. No source read dates its implementation.
- response: no evidence. No source read describes how taxpayers responded.
- outcome: no evidence. No reported yield or 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
No criterion graded effective on the evidence read.
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
Implementation quality
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
Consequences on record
- Reported yield: What URA attributes to a measure after the year. An official attribution, not a causal estimate.URA expected a yield in FY2019/20 from a rental income tax collection solution by RippleNami and recorded none, citing delayed implementation.[URA-ARR-1920, printed page 44, PDF page 51]
Afterlife
No Tax Appeals Tribunal or court decision on this provision is on record yet. That is not evidence that none exists.
Pending verification
- Whether any statutory instrument of rent estimates was made and approved by Parliament under s. 5(6).
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-1920
Annual Revenue Report FY 2019/20
Uganda Revenue Authority. 2020. Covers FY2019/20.
Desktop/Personal/URA DATA BOOKS AND REVENUE REPORTS/Annual Revenve Report FY 2019-20.pdf
Status: verified. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 51, 60 (PDF).
Table 20 (PDF page 50, printed 43) and Annex 3, the measure-level table (PDF pages 60 to 62, printed 53 to 55), read from page images. The file name misspells Revenue.
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. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 18 (PDF).
Read in full with pdftotext. Lists amending Acts with commencement dates on PDF page 8. This version predates any 2025 amendment.
REPO-REVENUE
Revenue collections and targets by tax head (data/raw/Revenue_by_TaxHead.json)
Uganda Revenue Authority, Annual Data Books FY2019/20 and FY2024/25, as compiled in this repository. 2026. Covers FY2015/16 to FY2024/25.
data/raw/Revenue_by_TaxHead.json
Status: verified. No page of this source is confirmed for this record by the audit; it is cited for context.
Existing repository extract, reused, not copied.
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: 3 (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).