Case file ITA-2023-DST
Income tax of 5% on non-residents supplying digital services to customers in Uganda
Highest rung reached: Verified lawLaw: read in a statutory textNew tax · Revenue
2 points pending verification
- What the tax has collected; the 2025 Act carved out supplies to associates (ITA-2025-DIGITAL).
- The FY2023/24 budget speech and its forecast; URA prints yields by tax head only for this year.
Law
- Principal Act
- Income Tax Act (Cap 338), enacted as Act 11 of 1997
- Amending Act
- Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2023 (Act 25 of 2023) (verified)
- Provision, revised numbering (2023 revision)
- pending verification
- Provision, numbering before the revision
- s. 86A and Third Sch., Part IV of Cap. 340
- Principal Act dates
- commencement 1997-07-01
- Amending Act in force from
- 1 July 2023 (assented 17 August 2023; gazetted 25 August 2023)
- Tax heads and taxpayers affected
- Income tax. Foreign providers of online advertising, streaming, ride-hailing, cloud and other digital services, and their Ugandan customers.
- Status
- Legal: pending verification. Implementation: pending verification.
The wording in force
as at 2023-07-01
86A. Taxation of non-residents providing digital services (1) A tax is imposed on every non-resident person deriving income from providing digital services in Uganda to a customer in Uganda at the rate prescribed in Part IV of the Third Schedule to this Act. Verified law: Wording or a date read in a statutory text, with the version and page named.[ACT-ITA-2023-25, PDF page 14, s. 9]
Redline pending verification
Reason
Stated objective pending verification
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.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.Missing. URA's annual revenue reports read for the register attribute no yield to this measure. URA's measure-level policy tables, where they exist, would settle it (URA Research and Planning).
- 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: only the collections of the tax heads affected.
- Uncertain: official forecast, reported yield, static or modelled estimate, causal estimate, wider impact; and 2 open points 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 new charge on a base not taxed before.
- 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
Afterlife
Linked records
- Digital services supplied to an associate in Uganda taken out of the non-resident digital services tax and into withholding amends this record. The 2025 Act amends section 86 of Cap. 338, which the register takes to be the 2023 Act's section 86A after the 2023 revision renumbered the Act; the renumbering table was not read. (pending)[ACT-ITA-2025-13, PDF page 4]
No Tax Appeals Tribunal or court decision on this provision is on record yet. That is not evidence that none exists.
Pending verification
- What the tax has collected; the 2025 Act carved out supplies to associates (ITA-2025-DIGITAL).
- The FY2023/24 budget speech and its forecast; URA prints yields by tax head only for this year.
Sources
ACT-ITA-2023-25
Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 25 of 2023)
Parliament of Uganda; Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation. 2023-08-25. Covers In force from its commencement.
Desktop/Tax legislation Amendment Acts/Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2023.pdf
Status: verified. Pages confirmed for this record in the source audit: 14 (PDF).
Acts Supplement No. 11 to the Uganda Gazette No. 56, Volume CXVI, dated 25 August 2023, at PDF pages 10 to 16 of a file that also holds the Stamp Duty (Amendment) Act 2023 and the Tax Procedures Code (Amendment) Act 2023. The author's file named Stamp Duty (Amendment) Act 2023 is a copy of the same file.