Conflicting interests arise for many businesses where decisions have to be made to determine how they consistently achieve profitability, while on the other hand minimise payment of tax. The temptation to minimise profits or even make a loss then becomes a tax risk management strategy. ... - Continue reading
Taxation by county governments on transit goods is holding back plans to eliminate trade barriers between East Africa Africa Community countries, Cabinet minster Peter Munya said at the weekend. The Cabinet Secretary for East African and Northern Corridor Development said said double taxation will stiffle the growth of the East… – Continue reading
KAMPALA, May 16 (Xinhua) — The World Bank in its new report has urged Uganda to improve its tax revenue if the east African country is to sustain economic growth. The Bank in its 11th Uganda Economic Update issued on Tuesday said while the economic growth has rebounded from 4.5… – Continue reading
Expanding the tax base under the existing conditions is like bleeding an anaemic person. A recent directive by President Yoweri Museveni to the Minister of Finance to tax users of social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp in a bid to widen the country’s tax base has stirred a… – Continue reading
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he wanted to tax social media to keep the gossip mill in check and raise revenue for the cash-strapped country. Now the government says it has no such plans. The government of Uganda admitted this week that it won’t impose a social media tax, after… – Continue reading
East Africa tax experts have raised concerns over increasing cases of tax evasion and fraud by some tax payers in the region which is crippling the economies. They made the remarks on Wednesday during the 6th East Africa regional meeting on tax investigation and enforcement in the Rwandan Capital Kigali…. – Continue reading
The new scanners by Kenya Revenue Authority at entry points has helped curb a multi-million-shilling tax evasion racket. The crooks had used all ways to beat the authority’s system to import luxury cars declared as toys or bicycles; scrap batteries that turned out to be Kenyan tea for export and… – Continue reading
Unknown to many Kenyans, Parliament’s passing of Finance Bill, 2016 that granted amnesty to Kenyan residents who have offshore incomes and assets in foreign banks had a very global agenda. The foreign income that is subject to amnesty is for the year ended December 31, 2016 and offers a waiver… – Continue reading
One disadvantage of United States citizenship is that all income from whatever source, worldwide, is subject to taxation. This is true regardless of how one obtains American citizenship; indeed, there are many “accidental Americans” who, by dint of having been born to a person with American citizenship, are technically American… – Continue reading
The Panama Papers have put the spotlight on tax avoidance once again. This is, of course, not a new issue. Before that, we had Swiss Leaks and BVI Leaks. You may be asking: how does tax avoidance work and why have policymakers struggled to rein it in? Firstly, it is… – Continue reading
Tax authorities and African governments have been urged to adopt effective information exchange systems based on proper implementation of international standards of transparency. This is necessary because exchange of information among member countries ensure that corporate bodies and individual taxpayers would have no safe haven to hide their income and… – Continue reading
East African Community member states have failed to reach a deal on a common tax rate as the bloc’s smaller economies worry about significant revenue losses. The failure to harmonise value added tax, income tax and excise tax rates has left the regional bloc deliberating on how to harmonise legislation… – Continue reading
Kenya enacted a new law targeting units of foreign companies that escape remitting most of their domestic taxes by allocating income to tax havens while attributing expenses to the East African nation, a practice known as transfer pricing. The Tax Procedures Act gives the Kenya Revenue Authority powers to investigate… – Continue reading
United States Vice President Joe Biden has never been one to hold his tongue. He certainly didn’t in his recent trip to Kiev. In a speech before Ukraine’s Parliament, Biden told legislators that corruption was eating Ukraine “like a cancer,” and warned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that Ukraine had “one… – Continue reading
Kampala — At least $470m (about Shs1.5 trillion) is lost in tax exemptions every year, a study commissioned by Oxfam and Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) Uganda, indicates. According to the study, titled “Fairness Tax Monitor: Country Study for Uganda” whose intention was to assess… – Continue reading
THE African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) has come up with a draft document on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion within the continent. The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), a member of ATAF, has said avoidance of taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion was with respect to taxes… – Continue reading
We have on several occasions fingered Panama as a particularly recalcitrant secrecy jurisdiction: our recent Panama Narrative Report spills a fair number of beans in that respect. Its recalcitrance is perhaps hardly surprising, given the quantity of Colombian and Mexican drugs money believed to be sheltered there – to name… – Continue reading
Multinationals operating in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will be among the first in Africa to feel the impact of new measures to be adopted in January to curb tax losses caused by manipulation of contracts between related companies. The three countries together with Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Botswana and… – Continue reading
Charities remind Cameron of pledge to ‘continue to lead world on tax and transparency’ before meetings with leaders of overseas territories Campaigners are urging David Cameron to use a meeting with leaders of Britain’s overseas territories this week to demand a crackdown on tax dodging, corruption and money laundering. Leading… – Continue reading
The Kenya-South Africa double taxation agreement comes into force from January 1. An announcement in the November 19, South African government gazette says the agreement applies for taxes withheld at source. “A resident of Kenya will not be taxed on any South African business profits, unless it carries on business… – Continue reading
Israel has joined 90 other countries in signing up to the OECD’s instrument to combat offshore tax avoidance and increase transparency in tax matters. The middle-eastern country became the 91st jurisdiction to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters yesterday, which enables the exchange of information,… – Continue reading
A number of multinational companies have been in the news recently for alleged tax malpractices. Various countries which are facing budget deficits are convinced that additional tax revenues can be collected, especially from multinational companies. What is it all about? A business typically faces many risks. A risk is the… – Continue reading
04/11/2015 – Uganda today signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. It is the 8th country of the African continent to sign the Convention and the 90th jurisdiction to join it. Her Excellency, Nimisha Janat Madhvani, Uganda’s Ambassador to France, signed the Convention in the presence… – Continue reading
The government has been accused of opening a loophole that allows super rich individuals and multinational companies to avoid taxes. The Tax Justice Network (TJN), a lobby group, has sued the government over agreements, which it says are robbing Kenya of the ability to raise revenues domestically, driving the country… – Continue reading
MTN has consistently prided itself as the foremost telephone company that is getting Nigerians talking the most. Now the South African company is about to set tongues wagging across networks with revelations that it has routinely been shipping billions of naira overseas to avoid paying its fair share of tax… – Continue reading
Rwanda has commissioned an audit into recent merger and acquisition deals involving foreign firms in its latest effort to clamp down on tax avoidance among multinational corporations. This comes amid growing concern that multinational companies move profits from the countries where they are generated and, in so doing, reduce national… – Continue reading
South Africa is allowing MTN potentially lucrative tax credits on money sent from its African operations to a letterbox company in Mauritius. Last week, amaBhungane and Finance Uncovered, a global reporting project, exposed how MTN’s African subsidiaries send billions in management fees to MTN International in Mauritius. The Mauritian entity… – Continue reading
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rents office space from a Vancouver-based property developer – a company that exploits offshore tax havens in Liechtenstein, the British Virgin Islands and Channel Islands. Larco Investments Ltd. owns three buildings in Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton where they rent office space to the CRA. Larco… – Continue reading
The National Assembly member (NAM) for Foni Bintang Karanai constituency has said that during the recent annual general meeting (AGM) of African Parliamentarian Network on Illicit Financial Flows and Tax (APNIFFT) held in Entebbe, Uganda, African parliamentarians present had applauded the Public Accounts Committee and Public Enterprises Committee (PAC/PEC) of… – Continue reading
Emmanuel Mayah, Jeff Mbanga, Francis Kokutse and Nick Mathiason contributed to this joint investigation by the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) and Finance Uncovered, a global reporting project involving journalists in 54 countries. Shortly after Cyril Ramaphosa left MTN to become South Africa’s deputy president last year, he lashed… – Continue reading
MTN Uganda has been accused of failing to provide evidence to justify shifting huge amounts of cash out of Uganda to a briefcase company located in Mauritius, potentially lowering its tax bill in Uganda – the subject of which remains an ongoing dispute with Uganda Revenue Authority, it has emerged…. – Continue reading
NAIROBI, Kenya – The World Bank’s private arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has jointly launched a business transparency initiative with the Swiss government, to promote corporate leadership in East Africa with the aim of helping firms attract foreign investments. The aim of the new initiative is to help firms… – Continue reading
Entebbe — Members of African Parliamentarian Network on Illicit Financial Flows and Tax (APNIFFT) want governments across the continent to put more pressure on multinational companies to pay full taxes. According to the parliamentarians, tax evasion and illicit financial flow (IFFs) from Africa can be brought to an end if… – Continue reading
Kampala. A policy to guide the formulation of a double taxation treaty will be finalised by close of this month, the commissioner for tax policy at the Ministry of Finance, Mr Moses Kaggwa, has disclosed. Double taxation treaty (DTT) is an important agreement that determines which country has the right… – Continue reading
It was an American statesman, Benjamin Franklin, a gentleman of reputedly many talents, who is credited with the widely spoken remark, ‘in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’ Technically, none of us lives forever and paying taxes is a part of life. Dodging… – Continue reading
The Uganda Revenue Authority has pledged more cooperation with the African Tax Administration Forum to address taxation avoidance practices by multinational corporations. The Uganda Revenue Authority has pledged more cooperation with the African Tax Administration Forum to address taxation avoidance practices by multinational corporations. The corporation will involve forming a… – Continue reading
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has entered into partnership with the continent tax bodies in a move to wipe out illicit financial flows from Africa. A report on illicit financial flows (IFFs) estimates that Uganda loses at least Shs1.5 trillion every year to illegal activities perpetrated by the multinational companies. The… – Continue reading
On August 3, 2015 the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes published 12 new peer review reports. Phase 1 reports were published on: Albania, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Lesotho, Pakistan and Uganda. The reports assessed these countries’ legal and regulatory frameworks for transparency and… – Continue reading
ABU DHABI: President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has issued a number of federal decrees with respect to ratifying agreements between the UAE and a number of friendly countries and transferring, appointing and promoting a group of diplomatic corps members. The decrees have been published in the… – Continue reading
KAMPALA, Uganda – Between July 2014 and June 2015, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has recovered over Ush 26 billion (about $8.1million) of the Ush36 billion ($11.2 million) from people trying to avoid paying taxes on goods The money is from 5236 seizures. This represents a 21.9% increase in overall enforcement… – Continue reading
Transfer pricing has emerged as a key focus area both globally and locally. From an international scene, the OECD/G20 venture — a club of advanced countries in Europe and North America, has been working on action plans to help tax administrations deal with Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project…. – Continue reading
ABU DHABI // The UAE aims to increase the presence of diplomatic missions in Africa, said Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Foreign Minister, at the first meeting of UAE ambassadors and heads of representative missions on Tuesday. Sheikh Abdullah said the meeting, in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, enriched diplomatic work… – Continue reading
OVER 50 judicial officers underwent a two-day training in emerging trends in tax law practice and administration organised by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to hone their skills in adjudication of revenue affairs. The training that closed last week was held at Lake Victoria Serena Resort, Kigo in Kampala. The training… – Continue reading
TWO Ugandan diplomats will soon find out how long they will be locked up in a jail in the UK after court found them guilty of fraud and tax evasion relating to duty-free goods. Diplomats are exempt from paying duties and taxes on cars, food and electrical appliances that they… – Continue reading
Nairobi — The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) wants tax incentives offered to foreign investors withdrawn. The proposal to eliminate tax incentives and concessions offered to foreign investors is aimed at boosting revenue collection to accelerate national development. Speaking at the ongoing Biennial Ambassadors/High Commissioners conference in Kwale, KRA Commissioner General… – Continue reading
Car dealers in Uganda who are unregistered importers are set to face the wrath of Uganda Revenue Authority as the tax body moves in to catch tax evaders. Last week, the tax body said more Ugandans were importing cars in the pretext of owning them, but when they reached the… – Continue reading
TAX in the 21st Century is exciting and new ideas and theorems are emerging to increasingly reduce the global village into one block where information is shared and taxes are realised even from abroad. Mid last year in June, a new notion was coined in the tax world. This new… – Continue reading
The taxation of a person is based on two principles: Source and Residence. A person for tax purposes includes an individual, trust, company, partnership and any form of business arrangement one chooses to take on. It should be noted that with globalisation, there is a constant mix of these two… – Continue reading
n this second part of our overview of current transfer pricing regulations on the African continent, we focus on relevant provisions in, amongst others, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda. The Ghanaian Transfer Pricing Regulations, 2012 (L.I.2188) (the Ghanaian Regulations) were introduced by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on 27 July 2012,… – Continue reading
