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...

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 · Topic: VAT on imported services · FGL review: September 2026 Ugandan businesses increasingly buy software, cloud hosting, consulting, legal support, advertising, technical assistance and group services from suppliers outside Uganda. A foreign supplier may not charge Ugandan VAT on its invoice, but that does not necessarily mean the transaction is outside Uganda's VAT system. What is an imported service? Uganda's VAT framework imposes VAT on a supply of imported services other than an exempt service, with the tax payable by the person receiving the supply. In practical terms, this can capture services supplied by a non-resident provider and utilised or consumed by a recipient in Uganda. The 2026 decisions in Ernst and Young v URA and Sogea Satom v URA reinforce the importance of looking at the substance of the service and where the benefit is received, rather than assuming that an offshore contract or remote delivery keeps the transactio...