By Irene Kabakama
URA met with a team from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently to deliberate on the taxation of the entertainment industry and how to effectively support it.
During the engagement, both stakeholders agreed on the need for a united front in the entertainment industry in order to speak with one voice and obtain government support more easily.
URA’s Assistant Commissioner for Public and Corporate Affairs, Ibrahim Bbossa, stated that this would make it simple for URA to provide sensitization in form of tax education.
He encouraged artists to push for the copyright law, noting that the revenue earned therein would benefit both the artists and URA.
“These frameworks will assist industry participants in developing a system that continuously monitors music. This has a cost that helps the artists and enables them to remit to URA,” he said.
Stella Nyapendi, the Ag. Commissioner for Legal Services and Board Affairs, stated that URA is promoting compliance through third-party information and partnerships. She gave advice to artists on the advantages of obtaining a TIN, like accessing refunds.
Amos Tindyebwa from UNESCO highlighted the challenges facing the industry, including missing out on government incentives, unfair taxation, and lack of stakeholder awareness.
On unfair taxation, Michael Masembe, the Ag. Manager of Tax Education, advised artists to declare their revenues by filing forms pointing out that doing so will reduce assessments levied by the URA.
As URA looks at collecting over UGX 29 trillion this financial year, stakeholder engagement has been earmarked as one of the strategies for achieving voluntary taxpayer compliance.
