tax book

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1Tax Education Package

Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

FULFILLING OUR

TAX EDUCATION

MANDATE

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Tax Education Package

Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority2

URA VISIONTo be a model for Best Practice and Innovation in Revenue Services.

URA MISSION

To Provide Excellent Revenue Services with Purpose and Passion.

URA CORE VALUES

Excellence, Integrity, Team Work and Respect

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Acronyms and Defined Terms

CD Customs Department

DT Domestic Taxes Department

ESA Education Standards Agency

FAQs Frequently Asked Questions

GOU Government of Uganda

MOES Ministry of Education and Sports

MOFPED Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic

Development

NCDC National Curriculum Development Centre

NCHE National Council for Higher Education

NSC National Speech ChampionshipsPSFU Private Sector foundation of Uganda

PCA Public and Corporate Affairs Division

TPD Taxpayers Day

UIA Uganda Investment Authority

UMA Uganda Manufacturers Association

UNCCI Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and

Industry

UNEB Uganda National Examinations Board

URA Uganda Revenue Authority

USSIA Uganda Small Scale Industrialists Association

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Content Page

Acronyms and Denes Tems 3

Word from the Commissioner General... 5

Background 7

What we Set Out to Achieve

Start and Promotion of URA Call Center Services 11

Production of Simplied Tax Information 12

Translation of Tax information 13

Availability of the Web portal and Intranet 13

Increased Taxpayer and stakeholder interaction 14

Taxpayers day .......... 15

Tax Clinics.............. 17

Partnerships................................... 20

Exhibition............................. 21

Radio Talk Show Programs .................................. 23

Introduction of Tax Education in Ugandas School Education... 24

Key Achievements.... 29

Major Challenges faced under Tax Education.. .. 31

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Word from

Commissioner General

U

ganda Revenue Authority

(URA) undertook a massive

tax education campaignaimed at empowering all its stake-

holders and the general public

with tax knowledge in order to

greatly increase the level of tax

compliance.

The campaign has and contin-

ues to target all Uganda Revenue

Authority stakeholders that havebeen categorized in various

interest groups and business

sectors.

In our continued effort to pro-

mote Tax compliance amongst

citizens, URA prioritized the Tax-

payer Services and Tax Education

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in its transformation drive.

This is also in line with a convic-tion that revenue collection can

only be sustainable, if the nation-

als are made to appreciate why

they pay taxes. It is additionally

used as a tool to empower stake-

holders with knowledge about

the various Taxes administered

by the organisation.

The importance of reaching out

to the Taxpaying community as

well as helping the young gen-

eration understand the value of

taxation in a country cannot be

underscored. For this reason the

sensitization of the public on

tax matters has been embraced

through many approaches rang-ing from a one to one interac-

tion to meeting stakeholders in

groups.

URA intends to continue invest-

ing in this drive, so that our tax-

payers can be served better and

ultimately boost Tax compliance.We anticipate that this booklet

on Tax Education will go a long

way in informing our stakehold-

ers and the public what URAs

achievements have been under

this drive-to-date in addition to

understanding how and where

they can participate.

Developing Uganda Together

Allen Kagina (Mrs)

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Uganda Revenue Authoritywas established by the URA Stat-ute of 1991. This resulted into the integration of three Tax Ad-ministration Departments that were responsible for all the taxes

collected by the Central Government of Uganda. These Depart-

ments were Customs and Excise, Inland Revenue, and the Income

Tax Department.

As the central tax body, URA is responsible for the assessment and

collection of specified revenue and accounts to government for it.

URA also administers and enforces the laws relating to such reve-

nue, advises the Minister of Finance on matters of policy relating to

all the taxes administered and educates taxpayers and the general

public on tax matters.

Approach to Tax Education before Restructuring

URA

Prior to restructuring, educating taxpayers was carried out by the

Tax Education and Public Relations Division under the Commis-

sioner Generals Department. The approach at the time relied on

production and distribution of pamphlets; quarterly newsletters in

addition to radio and television programmes. There was howeverlimited face-to-face interaction with the taxpayers/public.

New Approach to Tax Education

Restructuring URA was done in 2005 with the objective of creat-

ing efficiency and effectiveness in tax administration. This led to the

merger and creation of new departments/divisions/units.

Background

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It is against this background that the Public and Corporate Affairs

Division was created under the Commissioner Generals Depart-

ment. This new Division, through the Tax Education Unit is respon-

sible for planning and coordinating tax education programmes

aimed at increasing tax literacy, enhancing voluntary tax compli-

ance and ultimately increasing revenue collections.

The new approach to Tax Education involves all URA staff in the Tax

education initiatives. This is a giant step towards increasing tax lit-

eracy.

Staff at URA stations nation wide are able to organise tax sensitisa-

tion workshops without having to rely on resource persons from

the head office. In order to professionally manage the tax sensitisa-

tion seminars in Kampala Region, a resource team comprising of

staff from Customs and Domestic Taxes Departments was put in

place.

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Immediately after restructuring in 2005, URA undertook a massive

Tax Education campaign with the aim of empowering all its stake-

holders and the general public with tax knowledge geared towards

enhancing voluntary compliance and subsequently boosting rev-

enue collection.

The campaign targets all URA stakeholders broadly categorized

into business sectors and interest groups. Recently the focus has

broadened to include the young generation through the develop-

ment of the schools taxation curriculum from primary up to tertiary

levels of education.

Simple strategies have been adopted to supplement the existing

tax education initiatives. These include the revitalization of various

awareness and sensitization programs such as Radio Talk shows

and Tax Clinics. This has enabled URA to create rapport with her

stakeholders; establish a vibrant and interactive tax Information

desk, and introduce the Taxpayers Appreciation Day.

URA is proud to have spearheaded the incorporation of the Taxa-

tion Curriculum in the education syllabus for the country right from

primary to the tertiary levels of education.

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As earlier noted, revamping the tax infor-

mation desk was one of URAs initiatives

to reach out to taxpayers.

URA is responsible for producing simplified

tax reading materials for the taxpayers and

the general public. URA has published various

materials both in English and vernacular lan-

guages targeting potential and actual taxpay-

ers to enhance their knowledge about various

tax issues and to subsequently improve com-pliance levels amongst the taxpaying commu-

nity.

URA has utilised the following outreach av-

enues to target different sections of the pub-

lic/tax payers in a broad and comprehensive

manner.

What has been done?

URA Call Centre

Simplied tax literature, cartoon

magazines and translations into 9

local languages.

Improved customer care through

Client Service Standards & Revised

Taxpayer Charter.

WHAT WE SET OUT TO ACHIEVE

1. EMPOWER TAXPAYERS AND STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH

INCREASED TAX AWARENESS CREATION OF THE TAX

INFORMATION DESK



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THE START AND PROMOTION OF URA CALL CENTRE SERVICES

URA started a toll free call centre service aimed at providing free and

prompt services to her clients. This service is available from 8:00am to

5:00pm Monday Friday via the toll-free helpline 0800 11 7000. The

Call Centre is currently manned by five (5) staff, but there is a plan todeploy more staff in future.

URA launched a radio talk show program to make the availability of

the toll free help-line services known. Increased awareness about the

Call Centre services was immediately reflected through the increased

number of in-coming calls which has risen from an average of 450 calls

to 4,000 calls per month.

The call center is a useful tax sensitisation and feed back medium. The

free service has also benefited taxpayers who are now able to access

vital information relating to URAs business processes/procedures on

telephone instead of physical visits to URA premises. This has ultimate-

ly impacted positively on compliance levels.

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PRODUCTION OF SIMPLIFIED TAX

INFORMATION

This task addresses a wide selection

of tax-related information and has

been achieved in 4 ways:-

Pamphlets

Various pamphlets on specific

tax matters or law are published

in a simplified and easy to un-derstand format. A minimum

of 20 different brochures /pam-

phlets are updated and about

six new ones produced within

a year. Massive production is

handled in-house ensuring that

information for the clients is

readily available.

Taxpayer cartoon

magazine

Acul Ocolo is published on a

quarterly basis. It addresses a

specific topic in detail and tar-

gets adult readers. It is an easy

read publication for taxpay-ers with cartoon illustrations

to lighten the tax subject mat-

ter through cartoons and texts.

Two other cartoon magazines

namely Toto and Teeny target-

ing the young readers in prima-

ry and secondary schools were

introduced and are publishedevery year on a quarterly basis.

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Booklet of Frequently

Asked Questions (FAQs)

A booklet containing FAQsis compiled on a regular ba-

sis. An analysis of the ques-

tions frequently received via

the toll-free helpline, public

debates and tax clinics dur-

ing a given period are incor-

porated into the booklet. This

is utilized as a handbook forinforming both the taxpayers

and staff manning the tax-

payer service desks.

Posters on Topical Tax

Issues

This is a campaign to adver-

tise specific tax matters orlaws for the benefit of tax

payers. Specific topical issues

e.g. The Tax Payers Charter -

Rights & Obligations are also

published and distributed to

inform the public.

TRANSLATION OF TAX INFORMA-TION INTO VERNACULAR LAN-

GUAGES

Tax information has been translat-

ed into nine major local languages.

These include; Ateso, Lugbara,

Luganda, Lumasaba, Luo, Runyoro-

Rutooro, Runyankore-Rukiga and

Swahili for the benefit of sectionsof our taxpayers not in a position

to read the English language. URA

monitors the typesetting, printing

and distribution of approximately100 pamphlets on selected topics

to all URA taxpayer service desks

countrywide on a monthly basis.

TAX INFORMATION AVAILED VIA

THE WEBPORTAL AND

CORPORATE MAILS

A variety of updated tax informa-tion and laws are hosted on the

URA web portal and intranet for the

benefit of the external and internal

(staff) clients respectively. The URA

web portal is accessible on https://

ura.go.ug. Additionally, the web-

portal enhances the management

of electronic business transactions.

On the other hand, the corporate

intranet serves to educate and up-

date staff on new processes and

information. Staff can also share

experiences from their various sta-

tions country wide.

Simplified tax information is gen-

erated, published in electronic

format and dispatched to various

needs of the corporate clients via

their respective corporate mail

addresses on a monthly basis. Re-

quests for specific information are

received and responded to by thestaff manning the Call Centre.

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2. INCREASE TAXPAYER AND

STAKEHOLDER

INTERACTION

URAs Campaign to partner with

the Public through Tax

Sensitization Programs

URA embarked on the strategy

to partner with taxpayers and

selected stakeholders to edu-

cate taxpayers and the general

public about taxes. This has been

through increased interactions

both on radio talk shows and

workshops in addition to physical

courtesy visits to tax payers prem-

ises.

Additionally, Tax Clinics were

launched. URA meets with mem-

bers of the business community

in their respective segments and

trains them on topics of their

choice to enhance compliance.

Below is an elaboration of what

has been conducted under these

events.

What has been done?

lTax Payers Day designated

day headed by the URA Manage-

ment to educate taxpayerscountrywide and to also get feed-

back from the taxpayers about

URA services.

lTax Clinics for 10 business sec-

tors, special interest groups, &

business associations.

lRadio Talk shows conducted

countrywide on various local

radio stations.

lPartnership with key stake-

holders ie. UIA, UNCCI, USSIA in

sensitizing their members and

enterprenuers

Suzan managing the Intranet

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Taxpayers day 2010 - Taxpayers responding to the Tax presentation

START OF THE TAX

PAYERS DAY

In a bid to identify more with

taxpayers and address their con-cerns, URA introduced a special

day dubbed Tax Payers Day

(TPD) in 2005. The days events

are simultaneously conducted in

the 29 URA Tax districts. The TPD

provides a forum for educating

taxpayers on tax-related issues/

topics according to the needs in

the respective areas.

At the same time, the TPDs pro-

vides an opportunity for URA

Management to visit the field

workplaces and interact with

both staff and the taxpaying

Moses Kibumba, Manager Domestic Taxes Dept. addressing taxpayers in Kampala

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Taxpayers Day in one of the upcountry towns - Arua

Tax Clinic for Parliamentarians

community. This interaction has

enabled URA management to

learn and appreciate the con-

cerns/needs of the taxpayers.This has resulted into the im-

provement of URA business pro-

cesses with a view of improving

efficiency and enhancing volun-

tary compliance.

During the TPD, URA targets to

meet and educate the business

community on relevant topics.

URA has between July 2005 andJuly 2010 held 406 tax payers

days in 29 tax districts.

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THE INTRODUCTION OF TAX

CLINICS

The need for focused meetings

where tax issues affecting specific

business sectors/interest groups

would be addressed was criti-

cal following feedback received

through interactions during TPDs.

This led to the introduction of TaxClinics.

Consequently, the Commission-

er General of URA appointed a

20-member resource team from

Customs and Domestic Taxes de-

partments to educate taxpayers

under different business sectors.

Tax Clinics have proved an effec-

tive communication tool becausethey are focused, easier to man-

age and reach out to all business

sectors within the nation. So far,

implementation of the Tax Clinics

program has taken the three ap-

proaches below:-

a. Business SectorApproach

Tax Clinics are organised for each

of the ten (10) business sectors

namely:-

Agriculture, Forestry and

Fishing

Mining and Quarrying

Manufacturing

CG -Allen Kagina, closing the Tax clinic in Nakasero Community, Kampala

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Electricity, Gas and Water

Construction

Transport, Storage and Com-munication

General Trade

Financing, Insurance, Real Es-

tate and Business Service

Community, Social and Person-

al Services

Tourism and Hotels

b. Special Interest Groups

Approach

It was noted that although the

Business Sector approach was ap-

preciated, it was not extensively

embraced. In order to reach out

to other key stakeholders within

the business community, another

approach was devised targetingSpecial Interest groups.

Examples of these Interest groups

include:-

Opinion leaders or Influential

People like Members of Parlia-

ment, Local Councilors and Re-

ligious leaders.

Professional Community likeAccountants & Auditors, Archi-

tects, Lawyers, Teachers and

Bankers.

Diplomats.

Foreign Trading Community

i.e. Indian and Chinese Com-

A workshop for lawyers organised in May 2010 at Hotel Africana-Kampala



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munities

Media Business journalists/

reporters; these are key stake-holders in disseminating tax re-

lated information to the public.

There is need to sensitize this

group to empower them with

knowledge to be able to anal-

yse tax issues and report from

an informed point of view.

c. Weekly Tax Meetings/

Trading community Zones

The Tax Clinics program further

evolved to include weekly sensi-

tization programs specifically tar-

geting trading communities like

market vendors and super mar-

kets. This arose out of a need to

address pressing tax issues that

could not be satisfactorily ad-dressed in one meeting as well as

to systematically create tax aware-

ness amongst these communities;

and thus partner with them to im-

prove URAs service delivery. Tax

clinics of this nature span a period

of 3 6 months in a particular

community.

So far, URA has successfully con-

ducted tax sensitization for three

very busy trading communities

namely:-

1. Kikuubo Trading Community

( January 2008 August 2008)

CG, Allen Kagina at at the opening of a Diplomats Tax Workshop, April, 2010.

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2.) Nakasero Trading Community

(October 2008 February

2009)

3.) Kiyembe Trading Community

(September December 2009)

In the central region (Entebbe,

Mukono and Kampala) and in

up-country towns, 98 and 116Tax clinics were organized be-

tween January 2008 and June

2010 respectively.

PARTNERSHIPSURA has embarked on a num-

ber of partnerships with well

established bodies such as

the Uganda National Cham-

ber of Commerce and Industry,

Uganda Investment Authority,

the Uganda Small Scale Indus-

trialists Association and Brirish

American Tobacco. These bodies

in partnership with URA orga-

nize workshops for their mem-

bers. URA is allocated sessions

where its technical staff delib-

erate on a number of pertinent

topics about taxation.

These gatherings are also used

as avenues of receiving taxpayer

complaints and queries on vari-

ous taxation issues. This interac-

tion has enabled URA to improve

its policies on customer care and

enhance compliance.

(L-R) Geofrey Balamaga (URA), Ibrahim Bbosa (UNBS) & Enock Walugembe

(BAT) at the Anti-illicit trade seminar in Kiboga - Aug 24, 2010

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EXHIBITIONS

URA has ventured into this av-

enue to disseminate tax informa-

tion. Exhibitions by organisations

in the public and private sector

are held at various intervals in a

year.

URA actively participates in a

number of exhibitions. Notable

among them are; the Uganda In-

ternational Trade Fair organized

by Uganda Manufacturers Associ-

ation (UMA) once every year, Na-

tional Schools Exhibitions orga-

nized by the National Council of

Higher Education (NCHE) and the

Member Days Exhibition orga-

nized by the Private Sector Foun-

dation of Uganda(PSFU).

During the exhibitions, the URA

team composed of officers from

Customs and Domestic Taxes

educate participants on various

aspects of taxation.

Tax literature on a cross range of

issues is equally distributed.

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1st Deputy Premier and Min. for East African Community Affairs, Eria Kategaya atthe 3rd East African Investment Conference at Munyonyo April 27-30, 2010

Education Min. Geraldine Bitamazire visits the URA

Stall during the East African University

Exhibition at UMA Show Grounds Lugogo-May 2009

State Minister for Trade, Gagawala Wambuzi visits

the URA stall at the PSFU exhibition-2010

URA participated in the

UMA Trade Show - Oct 2009

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In 2006, URA undertook a client satisfaction survey which indicatedthat radio programmes were more effective in the tax sensitisation

drive. Consequently in 2007, URA launched the live/interactive ra-

dio talk show program in the Central Region (Kampala, Entebbe and

Mukono) with the highest number of both potential and actual taxpay-

ers. These include traders in the informal sector and small to medium

enterprenuers (SMEs). Thereafter, the talk show programs have been

organised weekly within the central region since 2008 to date. A mini-

mum of 4 talk show programs are conducted in each of the selected23 upcountry towns since 2009.

The objectives of the talk shows are to:-

Enhance eective communication between URA and her

stakeholders.

Increase tax awareness and knowledge among the taxpaying

community and general public so as to enhance tax

compliance.

LAUNCH OF URA RADIO TALK

SHOW PROGRAMS

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Empower taxpayers with knowledge of their rights and

obligations.

Benefits from the Radio talk show program in the CentralRegion

(vernacular talk show program) include:-

a. Increased awareness on various tax topics / issues/

procedures.

The program greatly enabled URA disseminate tax information to the

taxpayers and the general public on tax and tax-related issues like Tax

Amnesty, Rights and Obligations of taxpayers, taxes administered byURA, Tax Law amendments and updates about URA transformation ini-

tiatives on a wider coverage.

b. Improved URA Corporate Image

Through the live talk shows, URA is able to quickly pass on information

and receive feedback from a wider public due to the wider outreach

and listenership. The public is also able to engage URA for clarifications

and discussions on various URA processes/procedures.Finally the radio stations have acted as public relations mouth pieces

for URA, regularly providing information to enlighten the public on the

changes in the Institution and the improved business processes.

3. INTRODUCTION OF TAX EDUCATION IN UGANDAS

SCHOOL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

What has been done?

Syllabus developed for Prima-

ry, Secondary, Advanced and

Vocational/ Tertiary Levels.

First examinations on tax

matters undertaken in 2008.

Introduced National Speech

Championships for Secondary

schools as a follow up to the

curriculum.

Climax in competition for 1st

Phase of National Speech

Championships conducted in

June 2009.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TAXATION CURRICULUM IN THE SCHOOLSYLLABUS

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Genesis

As part of its 2006-2010 Corpo-

rate Plan, Uganda Revenue Au-thority embarked on a massive

tax education campaign aimed at

improving the level of tax compli-

ance and creating a tax compliant

generation.

Its against this background that

the students fraternity was identi-fied as a key focus group in order

to target and create a tax compli-

ant future generation. This led to

the development of a taxation

curriculum for the different levels

in Ugandas education system.

The development of a school cur-riculum to include tax education

was a landmark for Ugandas fu-

ture generation, and Uganda Rev-

enue Authority.

This was achieved through stra-

tegic partnerships with several

key stakeholders namely Minis-try of Education and Sports and

its different Departments that is

the National Council of Higher

Education, National Curriculum

Development Centre, Education

Standards Agency and all Heads

of Schools and Institutions.

The Purpose of developing a

Taxation Curriculum

The taxation curriculum is intend-

ed to address the need for collec-

tive responsibility towards nation-

al development and appreciation

of ones obligation towards taxa-

tion for all the Ugandan citizenry.

It is specifically geared towardstargeting our future generation

on tax compliance right from their

tender ages at the primary level of

education.

Targeting the pupils and students

is strategic in changing their at-

titude towards taxation and thusproduce responsible citizens.

Currently, the taxation curriculum

is being implemented in the Pri-

mary Schools Syllabus under the

Integrated Primary Skills subject

for primary five (5) to seven (7),

Secondary Schools Syllabus Or-dinary and Advanced level under

the Entrepreneurship subject, and

Vocational/Tertiary Institutions

Syllabus in different subjects.

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Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority26Tax Education Package


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Overview of work done to-dateAccreditation of the developed

material was done by a panel of

members from NCDC, UNEB, ESA

and practicing teachers approved

by NCDC. This process involved

certification of the material which

was developed by the URA task

force and infusion of the certifiedmaterial in the respective subjects

at the different levels in Ugandas

education system. The panel held

a ten-day review session for pri-

mary, secondary and vocational

taxation curriculum material with

the following outcomes: -

The current school Syllabi Teachers/Instructors

Guides

Pupils/Students

Workbooks

Specimen examination

question papers (copies

availed to URA).

The infused taxation material was

presented to the URA taskforce by

NCDC for approval and thereafter

a final report was submitted to

URA at the end of January 2008.

To-date Ugandas education sys-

tem boasts of a comprehensive

taxation curriculum initiated by

URA and certified and approved

by all concerned stakeholders.

The Curriculum led to a URA Na-

tional Schools Speech Cham-

pionship. In order to monitor

implementation of the taxation

curriculum at the different edu-cation levels, URA developed a

number of schools outreach pro-

grams targeting the entire school

community to specifically: -

i. Monitor how well taxation

is being taught, prepare re-

ports and devise means ofenhancing partnership with

stakeholders in the Ministry of

Education and Sports and the

NCDC,

ii. Create rapport with our stake-

holders for superb compre-

hension of the concept of in-

troducing tax education in theschools curriculum in order to

achieve the set objectives in

the long run,

iii. Improve URAs image, and

iv. Ultimately increase tax aware-

ness and boost voluntary tax

compliance.

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One of the concepts devel-oped for the Schools out-reach Programs is the National

Speech Championships (NSC). It is

a project initiated with the vision

of reaching out to pupils and stu-

dents across the country by pro-

viding them with an opportunity

to acquire tax knowledge, developtheir communication and presen-

tation skills through the speech

competitions organized at various

levels. The overall goal of NSCs is to

inculcate a taxpaying culture with-

in the young generation.

Implementation of the SpeechesCompetition

A theme for the competition was

developed by a team of tax experts

and sent to contestants before

commencement of the campaign.

The theme of the contestants

speeches was developed based

on tax principles. Source materi-als were obtained from Uganda

Revenue Authority information

centers, the internet, taxation pub-

lications or elsewhere as long as

they focused on Uganda Revenue

Authoritys effort towards the pre-

selected theme for the year.

PrizesContestants at all levels were given

prizes. Schools which produced

the best contestants at the na-

tional level received prizes and/or

accolades. Prizes included scho-

lastic materials, iPods, laptops and

school bags. The best student

from each level earned themselvesschool fees sponsorship for a year

from URA.

National Speech Championships

National Schools Speech

Championship - Winner of the

Advanced level -

Ms. Priscilla Nyachwo

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The competitions at the local

school level took place in March

2009 and the two selected win-ners (one from each level i.e.

Ordinary and Advanced levels)

progressed to the district level

competition. The first phase of the

National Speech Championships

competition attracted ten Dis-

tricts namely: - Kampala, Wakiso,

Mubende, Mityana, Mpigi, Luwe-

ro, Kayunga, Mukono, Kalangala

and Masaka.

The National competition was

held in June 2009 after the district

level competition in March 2009.

Twenty (20) winners from the

above mentioned districts, drawn

from both Ordinary and Advanced

Levels of education competed for

the ultimate prize.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTSi. Improved Public Image

Various tax education initia-

tives like TPD, Tax Clinics and

Radio Talk Shows together

with media publicity, have en-abled URA receive and act on

constructive feedback thereby

improving her public image.

ii. Improved Client Relations

URA has registered improve-

ments in her relations with

taxpayers through creation ofrapport during TPDs, Tax Clin-

ics and Radio Talk shows. In ad-

dition, the toll-free helpline has

provided useful feedback which

URA Management has used to

improve service delivery to her

clients.

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iii. Introduction of Taxation in

the Ugandas School Educa-

tion Curriculum One of URAs biggest achieve-

ments in the period has been

the introduction of Taxation

in Ugandas school education

curriculum. This will enable

the young generation to learn

their obligations, Rights and

Taxes administered by URAand hence nurture a tax com-

pliant generation.

iv. Increased level of tax aware-

ness with a positive impact

on tax collections

URA has been able to reach out

to and educate both targetedgroups and the general public.

The level of tax awareness has

increased as a result of this ini-

tiative and this is partly reflect-

ed in the increase of voluntary

registration of the taxpayers.

v. Building and strengtheningpartnerships with Stake-

holders

URA has been able to build and

strengthen partnerships with

some of her stakeholders. URA

has organized Tax Clinics and

Radio Talk show programmes

jointly with key stakeholders.

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MAJOR CHALLENGES FACED UNDER TAX EDUCATION

Frequency of tax clinics andradio talk shows is still lowfor up-country stations with theexception of the Central region,

which also handles the majority

of the business transactions, the

frequency of tax clinics/ focused

group programs for upcountry

stations is still very low primarilydue to limited funding.

In addition, inadequate logistical

support has greatly hampered

implementation of the proposed

monthly radio talk shows for each

upcountry Station. Currently URA

can only afford to hold Radio talkshows on a quarterly basis.

a. Facilitation of the Tax Edu-

cation and URA Resource

Teams

There is need for more facili-

tation by way of training and

skills development in order tobuild capacity to ensure that

the task is excellently handled.

There is also a challenge of re-

warding and motivating staff

involved in tax education as

resource persons. It should

be noted that they have to

devote extra time in order tostrike a balance between exe-

cuting their core duties in their

respective departments and

meeting their obligation under

the tax sensitisation program.

b. Information Desk and mate-

rials require major up-lift.There is a need to substantially

boost the information desk

through increased funding in

order to address the following

areas:-

Improvement of the qual-

ity and design of pamphletsprinted in-house from being

predominantly black and

white text to full colour print

to make them attractive to

the readers. This could be

by way of procuring: better

quality printing paper; mod-

ern full colour copy printer(RISO RP) machine capable

of producing quality docu-

ments.

Production of more issues of

the cartoon magazine and

to increase quantities pro-

duced within a year.

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The current budget pro-

visions cannot meet the

desired levels in terms ofquantity and frequency of

publication.

c. Television programs

Little emphasis has been

placed on utilization of live

television programs to sensi-

tise taxpayers and the generalpublic about taxes due to the

high costs of running such pro-

grams. Thats why in the short

and medium term, URA opted

to rely on relatively less expen-

sive avenues like tax clinics and

radio talk shows. However, this

can still be a useful extensionof URAs information dissemi-

nation strategy.

d. Use of Drama in the Tax Edu-

cation programmes

URA has not been able to fully

explore the avenue of reaching

out to taxpayers through dra-ma due to resource constraints.

It is envisaged that the use of

drama programmes would en-

able URA to reach out to and

educate a substantial propor-

tion of the public in an enter-

taining way. In order to

achieve this objective, URA re-

quests for and seeks the sup-

port of Development partners.

e. Monitoring implementation

of the taxation curriculum in

schools

i. Setting up Tax Clubs in

schools

URA requires additional fi-

nancial support in order toimplement the above initia-

tive. The objective of setting

up tax clubs in schools is to

enable URA follow up on

implementation of the taxa-

tion curriculum in schools .

The tax clubs will act asa channel of disseminat-

ing tax information to the

schools and their neigh-

bouring communities. In-

deed URA will closely moni-

tor the progress mde by

schools in tax awareness

ii. Sustainability of the Na-

tional Speech Champion-

ship (NSC)

URAs aspiration to organise

the NSC annually remains a

big challenge owing to the

amount of money required

to successfully implementit.

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Subject to availability of

funds, it would be ideal to

organise the NSC at theRegional Level per year for

each of the five (5) Regions

namely Central, Northern,

Southern-Western, Western

and Eastern Regions. This

would give an opportunity

for more schools (hence

more students) to partici-pate in the competition and

thus widen the scope of tax

sensitization amongst the

youth.

f. Translation of tax literature

Given the low literacy levels

in the country, many peopleare not able to compre-

hend tax issues published

in the English language,

and hence, the need to fre-

quently translate more tax

literature in the major local

languages. However, trans-

lation of additional tax ma-terial (more topics/issues)

and annual updates fol-

lowing such developments

as changes in the business

environment and amend-

ments in the tax laws re-

quires more resources par-

ticularly of a logistical andfinancial nature.

WAY FORWARDFrom the foregoing, it is evident that resource limitation in terms of funds

remains a major challenge to the Tax Education programs, and hence, URA

needs to lobby Government and other stakeholders for increased funding of

the Tax Education activities in order to achieve URAs long run objective of in-

creasing voluntary tax compliance.

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A publication of

Uganda Revenue AuthorityP. O. Box 7279 Kampala, Uganda

Telephone:(0417)442 054, 442 055, 443 150

Fax: (0414)334 419

Email: [email protected]

Web portal :http://ura.go.ug

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