In a bid to widen the tax base, the Minister of Finance, announced a
number of policy and revenue enhancement measures. Among these measures,
is a requirement for certain taxpayers to have Tax Identification
Number.
The Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is a 10-digit
number that works as your identity for taxes and unlocks your account
with URA. Everyone who is employed or involved in any type of income
producing or economic activity where customs duties, Income tax, VAT,
excise duty, stamp duty, withholding tax or any other tax are due
requires a TIN for instance, any person running a business in Uganda,
seeking trading licences, importation of goods, employees with a monthly
salary exceeding Shs235,000, acquisition, disposal and transfer of land
whose value exceeds Shs50 million, motor vehicle or boda boda related
services like change of ownership, changing from old logbook to a new
logbook, alteration of vehicle particulars, acquiring a duplicate
logbook and number plates etc., persons making supplies of goods and
services to anyone of above Shs5m and supplying goods and/or services to
government.
All persons seeking licenses, or any form of
authorisation necessary for purposes of conducting any business in
Uganda are also required to have a TIN. .
I will now take you through
a brief guide on how to apply for and acquire a TIN. Applications are
made online via our web portal www.ura.go.ug.
After loading the
webpage, follow the link under “e Services” to ‘Registration’ or
‘Register For Taxes’ and click the link that leads to download the form
for either “TIN individual registration” or “TIN Non – Individual
registration”. Individual relates to natural persons and non-individual
relates to legal persons such as companies, Local Governments and
trusts. For those doing business as sole proprietors, it is important
to note that the TIN is for the business owner, not the business. So, if
an individual has more than one business, they are only entitled to one
TIN.
After downloading the form, you will see a yellow menu with a
security warning. Please enable macros by clicking ‘Enable Content’.
Enabling the macros helps in completing the form in that there are a
number of self-populated fields which you will not need to individually
fill in.
Please have the following information ready before you start to fill in the form;
1. Individual registration: - Birth & Citizenship identification documents, sources of income, type of business activity and alternative contact.
2. Non- Individual registration:- Name
& address, subsidiary details if any, type of applicant, tax type,
sources of income, type of business activity, primary authorized contact
person and persons associated with entity.
1. Identification documents
Provide at least two copies of valid identification documents. Where possible, these should include one Government issued ID.
2.Contact Details.
These include email addresses and telephone numbers. Whoever has access
to your contact details, can get access and transact through your
account. Email addresses are important because after approval of your
TIN application, your TIN, along with a default password are sent to
your email address.
Physical Home/ Business address in Uganda. This should be stated to help the tax body locate the taxpayer.
Income
sources. The applicant should indicate all sources of income. An
applicant may be employed, but also with some rentable properties/
houses and a shop. One TIN will apply for all these. In case of
business income, the applicant is expected to give a clear description
of the. Descriptions like businessman, business woman, and investor are
not accepted.
A print out of the completed form together with
identification documents should be taken to the nearest URA office. I
would like to re-emphasise that TIN numbers are issued free of charge.
Please report any URA staff that demands payment as a condition to or in
exchange for a TIN, to the confidential URA whistleblower line on
0417-442222.
Ms Akol is the Commissioner General URA.
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