Sai Office Supplies Limited v Uganda Revenue Authority
Tax Appeals Tribunal, Application No. 12 of 2024. July to December 2025. Coram: Ms. Crystal Kabajwara; Mrs. Kabakumba Masiko; Ms. Rosemary Najjemba.
EBITDA · Tax EBITDA vis-à-vis Accounting EBITDA · Allowable Deductions · Capping of Interest Deductions · Carry Forward Losses as Allowable Deductions
Does a company deduct its carried-forward losses when working out the 'tax EBITDA' that caps its interest?
The situation
An office-supplies company in a group claimed interest of UGX 1,099,803,000 for 2019 and left carried-forward losses out of its tax EBITDA. Including them shrank the cap and produced an assessment of UGX 291,603,729.
How it was resolved
The Tribunal dismissed the application. 'Tax EBITDA' is not accounting EBITDA; carried-forward losses are allowable deductions under s. 36 and so reduce it. Deductions are not limited to the current year's expenses, as the three-year carry-forward of excess interest itself shows.
What a practitioner takes from it
Compute the interest cap on tax figures, after brought-forward losses; loss-making groups will find the cap bites hardest (compare Case 004).
What could change
Defining 'tax EBITDA' in the Act, item by item, would settle a question now decided case by case.