By Immaculate Wanyenze
Uganda Revenue Authority team the Chinese business community on Monday, telling them how they need to realize their full taxable potential.
The meeting was arranged by the Chinese Embassy and the Chinese Enterprise Chamber of Commerce in Uganda, to interact with the Chamber members at a personal level. URA continuous engagement of this community is testament of their value as investors and major taxpayers.
This was the second workshop after a similar engagement was held last year to discussing tax issues of; VAT, WHT, EFRIS, Rental and Customs interventions.
The Chinese traders told URA that were having issues with payment through EFRIS, how to access a refund, what Deemed VAT is and who qualifies for Withholding Tax Exemption. The traders also revealed some unscrupulous people masquerading as URA employees, and collecting tax from them.
The China has good bilateral relations with Uganda. China is also one of the influential partners that has supported Uganda in different infrastructural projects so it is important that they get to know how the tax policy works.
According to Ju Wanjie, the Secretary General of the China Chamber in Uganda, the pursuit of understanding the tax policy of the two countries is important for improving the well-being of the investors.
“I think in the future, URA can organize more activities like today’s workshop, and use such platforms to help Chinese enterprises better understand and comply with local tax laws. In addition, URA could also streamline its online tax system to reduce learning costs for businesses and lower the risk of poor business practices, Ju explained.
Ju also affirmed that tax problems faced by Chinese enterprises in Uganda are similar to those faced by local enterprises. The engagement was therefore provided opportunity for Chinese enterprises to communicate with URA for tax stability and economic development of Uganda.
Asadu Kisitu Kigozi, the Assistant Commissioner Compliance & Business Analysis appreciated the chamber members for their tax contribution in the different sectors. He committed to ensure URA has more of these engagements to enable the Chinese fulfil their tax obligations.
“Our team is ready to support you in all processes and where circumstances require appeals in case of a disagreement, we will equip you with the knowledge to comply on usage of different platforms,” Kisitu said.
URA pledges to increase face-to-face and more focused tax education through smaller groups. URA is also offering tailor-made education to the various taxpayer segments like the Chinese community to enable them to pay taxes with ease.
