Taxation In Uganda

Our Tax Accounting and Tax Advisory services perfected by Our long experience in the industry has enabled us build vast knowledge about the tax system in Uganda and the east African countries. We can easily identify the common mistakes made by organisations, businesses and individuals that gets them in serious tax problems.

We have the capacity to put together a team that will handle complex tax situations in all industry sectors in Uganda and East Africa.

Tax Accounting services;

Tax accounting are Accounting methods that focus on taxes rather than the appearance of public financial statements. Tax accounting is governed by the Internal Revenue Code which dictates the specific rules that companies and individuals must follow when preparing their tax returns. Tax principles often differ from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

For example, Balance sheet items can be accounted for differently when preparing financial statements and tax payables. For example, companies can prepare their financial statements implementing the first-in-first-out (FIFO) method to record their inventory for financial purposes, yet they can implement the last-in-first-out (LIFO) approach for tax purposes. The latter procedure reduces the current year's taxes payable

Tax Advisory services;

Tax Advisory Services rendered by the firm include among others;-

1. Pre-transaction/Investments Tax advisory

2. Clients Representation during engagements with Tax authorities (URA)

3. Tax Planning for;

• Organisations
• Projects and 
• Individuals

Tax Planning services:

Tax planning refers to the efforts taken by tax payers (individuals, Organisations and Businesses) in structuring their business transactions in order to achieve the maximum tax benefits or savings within the boarders of the Tax laws.

Some  common mistakes made are that had serious tax implication are;

a.  Entering major business transactions without a prior tax due diligence and advice for fear of a small tax advisory fee. The emphasis for many finance directors at the moment is cost cutting. For tax, this is wrongly translated into concentrating on managing the cost of the tax function as opposed to managing the tax cost to the organization. This is similar to someone who avoids visiting the doctor even if he does not feel well, so that he minimizes his medical expense.

b.  Entering into agreements and contracts with out considering the contracts with out considering the tax implications.

c.  Buying a business with its unclear past tax compliance history and without a proper comprehensive tax due diligence review.

d.   Missing time lines in the calendar .This costs extra money in penalties, interests and fines.

e.   Voluntary compliance or non-compliance. Non compliance comes with additional tax costs inform of penalties fines and interest.

f.   Leaving tax issues unresolved in the hope that URA will not find them. This is like avoiding a doctor in fear that he will tell you that you have a life threatening disease.

g.  Choosing a tax adviser on the basis of the lower fees he’s willing to take without due regard to the quality of tax advice.

h.  Failure to keep proper records.

i.   Reactive as opposed to proactive tax management, which is common with SMEs that only contact a tax adviser when URA raises an assessment.

j.   Not having all taxes in view while designing a tax solution for one. The danger with this is that you may have a solution for one tax head, say value Added Tax, which will create a more significant tax exposure for another tax head, say income tax. A good tax solution must take into account all heads.

At JW & PARTNERS we offer this service to ensure that clients reduce their tax costs. We point out the pitfall and reveal areas of tax relief. We guide you on how to trade in your sectors of choice to maximize Tax benefits as well as avoid mistakes. ....Contact us...