Chefette Catering Ltd v Uganda Revenue Authority
High Court, Misc. Application No. 1606 of 2025. July to December 2025. Coram: Hon. Lady Justice Susan Odongo.
Stay of Execution · Procedural Requirements of Appeals from TAT to the High Court · Competence of a Notice of Appeal · Effect of Statutory Timelines
A company's lawyers did not file its Tribunal application. By the time it found out, every deadline had passed.
The situation
A caterer was served an objection decision on income tax and VAT of UGX 1,406,110,791 on 21 March 2024. Its lawyers did not file the application for review. It learned this only when the Revenue Authority appointed its bank as agent in January 2025. The Tribunal refused an extension of time; distress followed. The company then appealed, first in the wrong court and late in the right one.
How it was resolved
The High Court dismissed the application to stay execution. Appeals from the Tribunal must be filed in the High Court within thirty days; filing elsewhere does not count, and refiling late does not cure it. With no valid appeal, there was nothing for a stay to attach to.
What a practitioner takes from it
Diary every deadline yourself and check the filing was made: the client bears the cost of an adviser's missed date.
Appeals from the Tribunal go to the High Court, within thirty days.
What could change
Electronic filing receipts sent to the taxpayer as well as to counsel would let a client see that a step was actually taken.