URA to prosecute 150 tax defaulters

Kampala.

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has named about 150 tax defaulters and opened criminal investigations against them for alleged tax fraud.
“A cross-section of unscrupulous taxpayers have been abusing the VAT regime through the generation of fictitious input tax invoices,” reads a public notice issued by the URA Commissioner General, Ms Doris Akol.
The fictitious invoices are invoices generated to portray a business transaction while in actual sense there is no genuine supply/movement of goods and/or services.
The VAT evasion and fraud involves at least Shs200 billion which URA says is recoverable from at least 148 accused companies particularly for the 2015-2017 period.
“Although URA instituted a 90-day grace period from January to enable taxpayers to rectify their tax returns, some taxpayers did not heed to this call,” Ms Akol stated in the notice and added the offenders will face criminal prosecution.

Recovered money
However, URA has already recovered Shs60 billion in the VAT fraud and vowed to intensify the recovery efforts. The tax body has said it will do everything within its power to recover the lost revenues from the culprits.
The URA further announced that under section 9(5) of VAT Act and section 5(7) of Tax Procedures Code Act, it has cancelled registration of the implicated companies, annulled the input tax arising from the fictitious invoices by the accused and revoked all Tax Clearance Certificates (TCC) issued to them by URA in 2017/2018 with immediate effect.
The URA notice also alerted the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Authority, the regulator of public procurement in government agencies, to beware about dealings with the accused tax defaulters and fraudsters.
“URA further wishes to inform the general public that we are continuously monitoring VAT transactions and hereby advise all registered taxpayers to ensure they always conduct their business affairs in accordance with the law,” Ms Akol states in the notice.