URA grants extension on tax paying deadlines

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Uganda Revenue Authority has given companies more time to file their tax returns as businesses battle the impact of coronavirus that has seen several shut doors and send staff home.

Companies, whose accounting year ends in September, and are unable to file corporation tax returns by March 31, 2020 will have a two-month extension to May, 2020. The penalties for late submission will not apply or will be refunded if the companies are able to submit on or before May 31, 2020, URA said in a statement.

Taxpayers whose returns for March 2020 were due by April 15, will be allowed to submit by April 30, 2020. The tax body says those returns for February 2020 were due to March 15, 2020, can now do so by March 31.

On the taxpayers with Memorandum of Understanding to pay in installments and their payments were due in March and April can now defer and reschedule the payments.

“The terms of MoU will accordingly be restructured for payments to be resumed in May 2020,” URA said.

Some nine cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Uganda and the government has advised that people work from home. President Yoweri Museveni has advised against non-essential movements. Less movement means people are not consuming such things as fuel and fast-moving products where indirect taxes are levied. 

One of the casualties of the disruption in business because of the virus are taxes. Calls for concessions to aid businesses to meet their obligations have been abundant.

In the first of the financial year 2019/20, URA reported a revenue shortfall of 700 billion Shillings. This is likely to grow in leaps as business comes to standstill while imports dry up. Government has said it will resort to borrowing to plug the shortfall gap.

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URN