A taxpayer can pay the exact amount agreed as principal tax and still discover years later that the tax ledger shows principal outstanding and interest continuing to accumulate. That problem sat at the centre of CARE International in Uganda v Uganda Revenue Authority , TAT Application No. 353 of 2025, decided by Uganda's Tax Appeals Tribunal on 7 September 2026. The ruling is important for finance and tax teams because it moves the discussion beyond whether tax was paid. It asks the next control question: how was the payment actually allocated on the taxpayer's ledger? FGL takeaway: Paying a tax assessment is not the final control. The payment must also be reconciled to the tax authority's ledger, including how the amount was split between principal tax, penal tax and interest. The dispute in brief CARE International in Uganda is a non-profit international organisation involved in humanitarian activities and emergency response. The underly...

Uganda Revenue Authority has confirmed that the Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2026 and the Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, 2026 were assented to with a commencement date of 1 July 2026 . URA has consequently advised taxpayers to review returns and declarations already filed for July 2026, August 2026 and subsequent periods and make any adjustments necessary to reflect the amended provisions. For finance and tax teams, the important issue is not merely that the law changed. It is that the commencement date reaches back to the beginning of the 2026/27 financial year, while some taxpayers may already have filed returns before the administrative systems and return templates were updated. That creates a practical compliance task: identify affected filings, determine whether they were prepared using the correct post-amendment rules, correct them where necessary and reconcile any resulting tax, payroll or credit consequences. Why the timing matters The legislative path helps expla...

Jurisdiction: Uganda · Decision: Tax Appeals Tribunal, Applications Nos. 51 & 72 of 2023 · Ruling date: 4 August 2026 · FGL review: September 2026 Medisell Uganda Limited v Uganda Revenue Authority is a useful finance case because it shows the difference between an accounting or reconciliation variance and a legally taxable transaction. The dispute covered corporate income tax, VAT and PAYE for periods between 2017 and 2020 and arose from URA audit work that compared accounting records with customs, stock and payroll information. The Tribunal set aside a corporate income tax assessment of UGX 996,746,527 and VAT of UGX 9,630,468 that had been derived from cost-of-sales variances. It nevertheless upheld VAT of UGX 1,465,020 on a disposal to Medisell Rwanda where the taxpayer did not provide sufficient evidence that the goods had actually been exported. The PAYE findings were also mixed, depending on the evidence supporting the relevant payments and motor...

Uganda's Financial Year 2026/27 Budget is more useful to a finance team when it is read in two layers: first as a statement of Government policy and spending priorities, and second as a set of tax and compliance changes that must be implemented in day-to-day systems, payroll, invoicing and reporting. The Budget Speech was delivered to Parliament on 11 June 2026. The final resource envelope is approximately UGX 84.39 trillion , including domestic revenues of about UGX 45.96 trillion, of which roughly UGX 40.16 trillion is tax revenue. The Government's stated development priorities continue to centre on agro-industrialisation, tourism, mineral-based industrial development, and science, technology and innovation. FGL review: September 2026. This article reflects the enacted and operational position reviewed after the Budget Speech, rather than treating every proposal announced in June as automatically final law. The Budget Speech Is Not the Same Thing as the Final Tax Law ...