2023
Waiver enacted
Interest and penalty outstanding at 30 June 2023 waived if the principal is paid by 31 December 2023.
PSFU, 2024 position paper, p.10
Fiscal Intelligence and Reform Lab
Letters to the Committee
Every April, businesses, professions and civil society write to Parliament's Finance Committee about the year's tax Bills. We followed 44 of their asks on 28 clauses, from 2021 to 2026: from the letter, to the committee's report, to the Act in the Gazette.
Our notes are in typewriter red. This is not a scorecard for any sender, and it is not every clause: it is every clause we could trace to the end.
Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic DevelopmentLetters
44letters followed
28clauses
2021 to 2026tax amendment Bills
Six years of Bills
The mailbags
Each April a new set of tax Bills, and a new bag of letters. These are the letters we could follow to the end, by the year of the Bill.
0 letters
Reports list who was heard, not who asked for what
6 letters
Cotton ginners, Bujagali, the interest cap
15 letters
Returned by the President
RETURNED22 letters
PSFU's 26 points; ICPAU's comments
1 letter
The spirits rate, again
0 letters
A fourth waiver
Chapter 1
One letter, followed all the way
A letter goes to the committee's desk, then through the House, then into the Gazette. In 8 of the 28 clauses we traced, what came out of the Gazette was not what the committee recommended. Where the record shows why, the frosted glass of the House clears; in 2023 the answer came from State House.
The committee desk
The House
Hansard not read
The Gazette
THE UGANDA GAZETTE
Acts Supplement
Act 25 of 2023 s.8
UMACap on carried-forward losses
Read the pages yourself
2023 · one letter
Seven years, not five
The Income Tax Bill capped carried-forward losses after five years. UMA wrote asking for seven, and PSFU's April paper asked for the same. ICPAU, PSFU and the Uganda Law Society “aligned themselves” with UMA; PwC, BDO and Libra Advocates asked to drop the cap altogether.
The committee desk
Rejected: five years
The committee heard the witnesses and found their case “hinged on trading losses contrary to tax losses”. It kept five years, and added a way for the Minister to extend it with Parliament’s approval.
The House, first passage
The House drops the cap
The House passed the Bill without the cap, as most of the bodies had asked. We know because of what happened next: the President asked for it back (PSFU’s paper of 4 July 2023 sets out his proposals).
State House, June 2023
Returned by the President
Under Article 91(3) the President sent the Bill back with proposals: reinstate the loss cap, and restore the digital services tax, “removed in error”. PSFU wrote again, on 4 July, asking that the cap be left out.
The House, 11 July 2023
A middle ground
MPs “created a middle ground of seven years”. The committee chair, Amos Kankunda, said genuine businesses would not be hurt; Nandala Mafabi said it would close businesses and asked for more URA audits instead. (Parliament of Uganda news, 12 July 2023.)
The Gazette
Seven years
Act 25 of 2023, section 8: “after a period of seven years of income”. UMA’s ask, rejected at the committee desk, is the law, by way of State House.
2023 · a clause the committee added
A tax on agent-banking commissions
The Ministry proposed a final 15% withholding tax on commissions to agent bankers, a proposal “from the industry”, the Minister said. The committee added it. The minority report warned it would push agents out of business.
The Gazette
Not there
Act 25 of 2023 has no such section. The House glass stays frosted: nothing we have read says where the clause fell away.
2022 · a request from a ministry
Five more years for Bujagali
The Ministry of Energy asked to extend Bujagali hydro power’s tax holiday to 2027. The committee declined: UGX 432 bn forgone for a 4.7% cut in tariffs.
The House
One year at a time
The 2022 Act gave one year, to 2023. In 2023, after the President proposed another, Bujagali got “a tax waiver for another year, awaiting audit and renegotiation of the contract as directed by Parliament”.
The Gazette
To 30 June 2024
The consolidated Income Tax Act exempts Bujagali “up to 30th June, 2024”.
2024 · a clause everyone backed
Transfer pricing, filed with the return
The Bill asked multinational groups to file transfer pricing information with their returns. ICPAU called it “a welcome amendment” it had proposed in 2021; PSFU accepted it; the committee said it should stand part of the Bill.
The Gazette
Gone
The Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2024 does not amend section 90. Nor does it carry the 2% withholding on interest to foreign lenders, or the definition of a specialised hospital, all backed by the committee. The glass stays frosted: we have not found why.
Chapter 2
The sorting wall
Every letter, filed by what the Act did with its ask. Of the 42 asks whose outcome we can confirm, 12 were met in full, 8 in part, 21 not, and 1 got the opposite; 2 are still waiting for an Act we do not yet hold. Open any envelope to read the whole chain and the printed pages.
Met in full12
Met in part8
Not met21
The opposite1
Still to confirm2
Dashed red: the Act differs from what the committee recommended. Each envelope is one ask; a sender can appear more than once. This is not a scorecard.
Chapter 3
The reply tray
In 17 of the 28 chains, the only link between a letter and the law is that they happen to match. In 1, the report says a submission moved the committee.
REPLIES0
Chapter 4
The ledger that kept being waived
The same complaint, four years running: URA's taxpayer ledgers were wrong. Each year the answer was a waiver of interest and penalties.
2024
Extended, at taxpayers' request
PSFU: URA made ledgers visible only in October 2023, and they “had many errors”. Extended to 31 December 2024.
“The purpose of Parliament enacting section 40D was not achieved due to URA system challenges.”
PSFU p.10; Act 18 of 2024, s.3
2025
Extended again
Many taxpayers had still not benefited, “because of the outstanding issues with their respective URA ledger reconciliations”. URA “encouraged” to clean up its ledgers.
2026 committee report, p.5, recounting 2025
2026
Widened
A further waiver, for interest and penalty outstanding since 30 June 2016, “to restore the integrity of taxpayer ledgers”.
2026 committee report, pp.4 to 5
Four waivers in four years. What each cost and how many taxpayers used it is not published in anything we read.
The printed pages
Chapter 5
About a month
The 2024 Income Tax Bill was read for the first time on 28 March. The committee reported in April. Between them, everyone who wanted a say had to write, appear and be heard, without the research the committees keep asking for.
Mar28First readingMar29Mar30Mar31Apr1Apr2Apr3Apr4Apr5Apr6Apr7Apr8Apr9Apr10Apr11Apr12PSFU paperApr13Apr14Apr15Apr16Apr17Apr18Apr19Apr20Apr21Apr22Apr23Apr24Apr25Apr26Apr27Apr28Apr29Apr30Report dated April 2024 (the day is not printed)
“Due to limitation of time, we have not been able to widely consult from the private sector across the 12 sectors.”
PSFU, 12 April 2024, p.2
“…the Minister did not present any research on the proposals for amendment of the tax regime a complaint of the Committee for the past three sessions of the Parliament.”
Finance Committee, Excise Duty Bill 2025, p.6
“Going forward, we will involve taxpayers more fully in the tax policy formulation process.”
Minister of Finance, Domestic Revenue Mobilisation Strategy, quoted in the 2024 minority report, p.11
Chapter 6
Postcards from the public
What Ugandans tell Afrobarometer about the tax system, and what taxpayers told URA's own survey in 2024, each with its year and sample.
35%
1,200 adults, ±3 pts · PP89, Fig. 6
To: The Finance Committee
Parliament of Uganda
Kampala
From: the public, via Afrobarometer
59%
3,000 adults, ±1.8 pts · AD1127, p.2; PP89, p.9
To: The Finance Committee
Parliament of Uganda
Kampala
From: the public, via Afrobarometer
83%
1,200 adults, ±3 pts · PP89, p.11
To: The Finance Committee
Parliament of Uganda
Kampala
From: the public, via Afrobarometer
76%
1,200 adults, ±3 pts · PP89, p.11
To: The Finance Committee
Parliament of Uganda
Kampala
From: the public, via Afrobarometer
66%
1,200 adults, ±3 pts · PP89, p.3
To: The Finance Committee
Parliament of Uganda
Kampala
From: the public, via Afrobarometer
73%
1,829 taxpayers who file, pay or trade · URA Client Satisfaction Survey 2024, Table 33
To: The Finance Committee
Parliament of Uganda
Kampala
From: taxpayers, via URA’s own survey
67%
1,829 taxpayers who file, pay or trade · URA Client Satisfaction Survey 2024, p.16
To: The Finance Committee
Parliament of Uganda
Kampala
From: taxpayers, via URA’s own survey
Postcards from the public and from taxpayers: perceptions, each with its year and sample. No Afrobarometer question asks whether people were consulted, so we draw no line from these to the letters above. Tap a stamp to see its photograph; the stamps are made for this page from credited photographs and are not Posta Uganda stamps.
The printed pages
Chapter 7
Every way in
The committee is one channel of several. Open a drawer to see who takes part, who decides, and what came back. Two drawers stay taped shut: we have not read those records yet, and we will not guess at them.
- Purpose
- Scrutinise each year's tax amendment Bills before the House votes
- Who takes part
- Ministry of Finance, URA and the Attorney General; business associations (PSFU, UMA, KACITA, UNATA, Uganda Hotel Owners, Uganda Bankers); professional bodies (ICPAU, Uganda Law Society); advisers (PwC, BDO, law firms); civil society (SEATINI, CSBAG, Tax Justice Alliance, Unwanted Witness); individual firms and, in 2022, a retired public servant
- What it produces
- A published report per Bill with recommendations clause by clause, and minority reports
- Who decides
- The House, then the President's assent
- What changed, with evidence
- 28 clauses traced. The Act matched the committee in 18, differed in 8, and 2 are still to confirm.
- Feedback to the sender
- The report is published, but none read here tells each body what became of its submission; only the 2023 report says who argued what, clause by clause
- Purpose
- Set out a body's view on every clause
- Who takes part
- PSFU on behalf of business associations; read here: PSFU's papers of April 2023, July 2023 and April 2024 (the last says time did not allow consultation across all 12 sectors) and ICPAU's comments on the 2024 Bills
- What it produces
- A clause-by-clause paper (26 items in 2024)
- Who decides
- The committee, then the House
- What changed, with evidence
- PSFU's 2024 asks, traced to the Acts: 4 met in full, 3 met in part, 10 not met, 1 the opposite, 1 still to confirm. A list, not a score.
- Feedback to the sender
- No written response found
- Purpose
- A public body asks for a change not in the Bill
- Who takes part
- The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (2023); the Ministry of Energy (Bujagali, 2022)
- What it produces
- A presentation to the committee; in 2023 a petition read in the House
- Who decides
- The committee and the House
- What changed, with evidence
- Prosecutors' exemption enacted (Act 25 of 2023); Bujagali extended a year at a time though the committee declined five years
- Feedback to the sender
- Not applicable
- Purpose
- Debate and amend the committee's report
- Who takes part
- Members of Parliament
- What it produces
- The Bill as passed
- Who decides
- The House
- What changed, with evidence
- Visible where the Act differs from the committee. In 2023 the House dropped the loss cap and the digital services tax; after the President returned the Bill it settled on seven years and restored the tax (Parliament's news, 12 July 2023). Why three 2024 clauses the committee backed fell away is not in anything read
- Feedback to the sender
- Parliament's news items; the Hansard itself is not read yet
- Purpose
- The President may return a Bill to Parliament with proposals for reconsideration
- Who takes part
- The President and the Ministry of Finance; submitters can write again (PSFU did, 4 July 2023)
- What it produces
- A letter to the Speaker; a reconsidered Bill
- Who decides
- Parliament, then the President's assent
- What changed, with evidence
- In 2023: the loss cap returned, at seven years; the digital services tax restored; the unit trust change dropped; Bujagali extended one more year
- Feedback to the sender
- PSFU's second paper responds to the President's proposals; the letter itself is not in hand
- Purpose
- Set budget priorities before the Bills are drafted
- Who takes part
- Not read
- What it produces
- Not read
- Who decides
- Ministry of Finance and Cabinet
- What changed, with evidence
- Not read
- Feedback to the sender
- Not read
- Purpose
- Service and administration, not tax law; URA's service standard promises routine engagements and to communicate changes in the law within one month of enactment
- Who takes part
- Taxpayers who file, pay or trade; URA's 2024 survey heard 1,829 of them, 1,234 staff and 14 key informants
- What it produces
- The Client Satisfaction Survey Report 2024, by Gerasma Investments Limited for URA
- Who decides
- URA
- What changed, with evidence
- 73% of taxpayers surveyed were not told of the year's changes in the law; the report finds URA “not in compliance with the service standards” (Table 33). Overall satisfaction index 67%, up from 62% in 2020
- Feedback to the sender
- The report is published on URA's site; whether its recommendations were acted on is not in anything read
- Purpose
- Settle a taxpayer's dispute over an assessment
- Who takes part
- Taxpayers and URA
- What it produces
- Decisions; the Casebook on this site covers them
- Who decides
- URA, the Tribunal, the courts
- What changed, with evidence
- Outside this project's chains; a decision can prompt a later amendment, which this project has not traced
- Feedback to the sender
- The decision itself
Chapter 8
What would make it a conversation
Six options, pinned up unranked. Turn a card over for who would act and what it would cost.
Sources and method
Thirteen Finance Committee reports on the tax amendment Bills of 2021 to 2026 and one minority report, and Parliament of Uganda's news of 12 July 2023 on the returned Income Tax Bill; three Private Sector Foundation Uganda papers (19 April 2023, 4 July 2023, 12 April 2024) and ICPAU's comments on the 2024 Bills; the enacted Acts (Income Tax 2022, 2023 and 2024, VAT, Tax Procedures and Excise Duty 2024, Excise Duty 2025) and the consolidated Income Tax Act (ULII, 23 December 2024); Afrobarometer Policy Paper 89 and Dispatch 1127; URA's Client Satisfaction Survey Report 2024. Each chain was read by hand at source and closed on the Act, never on the committee report; every count on this page is computed from the chains and checked by tests.
A chain is attributed when the report says a submission moved the committee, recorded when it names the sender and the ask, aligned when the outcome only matches a published submission. The sample leans to 2024, the one year with a clause-by-clause position paper, and to objections. Outcomes not yet confirmed: the 2024 cement clause (its wording is not legible in our copy) and the 2025 spirits Bill. The 2023 changes after the committee are explained by Parliament's own news and PSFU's paper on the President's proposals; the President's letter itself and the Hansard are not read, and nothing we read explains why three 2024 clauses the committee backed are not in the Act.
Photographs on the stamps
The stamps are made for this page from photographs on Wikimedia Commons, cropped and reduced. They are not stamps issued by Posta Uganda.
- Grey crowned crane: Grey crowned crane (Balearica regulorum gibbericeps) head 2.jpg, by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Uganda kob: Uganda-Kob.jpg, by Frank Dickert, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Mountain gorilla: 064 Mountain gorilla climbing a tree at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park (crop) Photo by Giles Laurent.jpg, by Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Shoebill: Shoebill Uganda.jpg, by Joynabasirye, CC BY-SA 4.0
- African elephant: 043 Elephant family at Queen Elizabeth National Park Photo by Giles Laurent.jpg, by Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Tree-climbing lion: Tree lion 2.jpg, by Cody Pope, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Chimpanzee: 013 Alpha male chimpanzee at Kibale forest National Park Photo by Giles Laurent.jpg, by Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Rothschild's giraffe: Rothschild giraffe in Murchison Falls National Park.JPG, by Daryona, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Hippopotamus: Flusspferd Kazinga Channel 20250813 8.jpg, by Z thomas, CC BY 4.0
- Nile crocodile: A Nile crocodile resting in Murchison Falls National Park.jpg, by Kalamyaaron, CC BY-SA 4.0
_head_2.jpg){kind=link}
_Photo_by_Giles_Laurent.jpg){kind=link}
Aggregates and public documents only. Updated 6 November 2026. Related: What Counts as Gainful Activity? and the Casebook.