By Kabahweza Kamugisha Allan
Officials from the Tanzania Revenue Authority recently held a five-day benchmark to understand the workings of URA’s High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) office.
Deborah Nabankema, the Supervisor of the HNWI unit shared with the delegates how URA identifies taxpayers that fit this category, explaining that an environmental scan is carried out following set parameters.
These include having a shareholding in a company with an annual turnover of UGX 40 billion, net investable assets of UGX 1 billion, land transactions of UGX 1 billion between the seller and the buyer making annual imports of UGX 1 billion, and owning a motor vehicle worth over UGX 500 million.
Nabankema further revealed that the HNWI register has grown from 144 to 1359 taxpayers.
John Tinka Katungwensi, the Assistant Commissioner for Domestic Taxes, urged TRA to establish a comparable unit and advised them to begin by consulting their taxpayer register.
“You have to first look at your register, and then you group them in their respective segments. Lastly, when you are doing trend analysis, you must look at the likes with these, and we normally use a turnover. Since you have many millionaires, start with those,” he said.
He also underlined how important it is to have knowledgeable staff running the office.
“Creating a high-net-worth office is a good idea, and you should use some of your best resources there,” said Katungwensi.
Kayobyo Majogoro, the Deputy Commissioner of Operations for the Large Taxpayers Department at TRA, commended URA for establishing a High Net Worth Individuals unit.
“We value the steps you took to establish this unit and the expertise you gave to help us establish our own,” he said.
