From 1 July 2026, Uganda’s VAT withholding rules changed in an important way. URA has recently stated that, effective 1 July 2026, a designated VAT withholding agent is not required to withhold VAT on payments to a supplier who issues an EFRIS invoice or receipt. This follows the 2026 VAT amendment, which excludes VAT withholding where a designated person pays for taxable supplies and is issued an e-invoice or e-receipt. That sounds simple. But a practical question has now emerged: What happens to invoices that were issued before 1 July 2026 but are being reviewed, paid, or followed up after that date? The answer should not be reduced to one sentence. The safer approach is to separate three things: the invoice date, the payment date, and the existence of a valid EFRIS invoice or receipt. Under the old VAT withholding regime, designated VAT withholding agents were required to withhold VAT when making payment for taxable supplies, unless an exemption applied. Therefore, where p...

The practical answer IFRS 16 requires most lessees to recognise a right-of-use asset and a lease liability. The difficult work happens before the journal entry: finding all contracts that may contain leases, identifying the asset, assessing who controls its use, determining the enforceable lease term, separating service components and obtaining a supportable discount rate. A reliable process follows the contract from legal terms to accounting judgments, a present-value calculation, an approved lease schedule and periodic reconciliation. Posting equal monthly rent expense without this analysis is not the normal lessee model under IFRS 16, except when a recognition exemption is properly applied. First identify a lease A contract is or contains a lease when it conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time in exchange for consideration. A contract called a service agreement may contain a lease, while a contract called a lease may include substan...

On 7 September 2026, the Uganda Revenue Authority published the compliance risks that will receive particular attention under its Compliance Improvement Plan for the 2026/27 financial year. The notice lists 22 risk areas covering inventory, excise duty, exports, sales, expenses, payroll, withholding tax, EFRIS, Digital Tax Stamps and related-party transactions. The practical response is to review the links between your accounting records, tax returns and operational systems before URA asks for an explanation. Do not force every record to match. Identify genuine errors, correct them through the proper process, and document valid timing, classification or system differences. This article explains what URA has announced and sets out a practical readiness programme for finance teams, tax managers and business owners. It does not assume that every organisation will face an audit or that every variance represents unpaid tax. What URA Actually Announced URA says the FY 2026/27 ...

Scope: Uganda · Topic: Revenue reconciliation across ERP, EFRIS, VAT and income tax · FGL review: September 2026 Sales should be explainable across every system a business uses, but they will not always be numerically identical. An ERP may record invoices and journals, EFRIS records fiscal documents, VAT follows statutory supply rules, financial statements apply accounting standards, and the income-tax return applies tax rules to annual business income. The control objective is therefore not to force all four numbers to match. It is to build a documented bridge that explains why they differ, whether each difference is valid, and what evidence supports it. Why the numbers can legitimately differ A difference can arise from timing, classification, system configuration or tax treatment. Common examples include advance billings, deferred income, unbilled revenue, credit notes, exempt or zero-rated supplies, manual journals, foreign-currency treatment, customer-contra...

Jurisdiction: Uganda · Topic: EFRIS and VAT withholding · Effective date: 1 July 2026 · FGL review: September 2026 Uganda's VAT withholding rules changed from 1 July 2026. A person designated to withhold VAT is not required to withhold VAT on a payment for taxable supplies where the supplier issues the designated person with an e-invoice or e-receipt in accordance with the Tax Procedures Code framework. The practical effect is important for both buyers and suppliers: a valid EFRIS document can now affect whether VAT withholding applies to a payment. But this is not the same as saying that VAT withholding has disappeared, or that every document described as an EFRIS invoice automatically produces the same result. What changed from 1 July 2026? The Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2026 changed the VAT withholding framework to exclude a designated person from withholding VAT where that person pays for taxable supplies and is issued with an e-invoice or e-rec...

Jurisdiction: Uganda · Topic: VAT registration and EFRIS · FGL review: September 2026 Not every business in Uganda is automatically required to register for VAT. The key starting point is whether the person is making taxable supplies and whether the statutory registration threshold has been met or is expected to be met. VAT registration and EFRIS are related, but they are not the same thing. VAT is a tax regime. EFRIS is an electronic invoicing and receipting system used by URA for transaction reporting and compliance. What is VAT in Uganda? Value Added Tax is an indirect tax charged on taxable supplies made by taxable persons, on taxable imports of goods and on imported services that are not exempt. Uganda's standard VAT rate is generally 18%, while some supplies are zero-rated at 0% and others are exempt under the VAT Act. Who must register for VAT? Under the current VAT Act and URA guidance, the annual registration threshold is UGX 300 million of taxable s...