🚨🚨DEAN OF THIEVES 🚨🚨
We the traders, boda riders, youth and ordinary Ugandans have suffered enough. We are not refusing to pay tax. We are refusing to be over taxed and scammed by a system designed to make us poor.
This is how URA over taxes us;
1. Six Taxes on One Item. This is a Scam.
You import one phone or one bale of clothes. URA charges you;
- Import Duty 25%
- Excise Duty
- VAT 18%
- Withholding Tax 6%
- Infrastructure Levy 1.5%
- Environmental Levy 30%
One item, six taxes stacked on top of each other. By the time you reach Kikuubo, the price has tripled. Who can afford that? This is not taxation, this is extortion.
2. PAYE 40% - Highest in East Africa.
In Rwanda PAYE is 30%, Tanzania 30%, Kenya 30%. In Uganda it's 40%. A worker who earns 1M takes home only 600k. Government takes 400k before you even buy food which also has 18% VAT. Where is our take home? 🏠
3. Fuel Excise Raised Every Year.
Fuel excise from 1,350/= to 1,550/= to now 1,750/=per litre. Every time fuel goes up, everything goes up taxi fare, food, cement, soap. Yet URA says they are widening tax base.
4. Double Taxation on Small Businesses.
A small shop owner in Kampala pays: Trading license to KCCA, Income tax to URA, VAT 18% plus daily EFRIS fines of 2M, 6M for small mistakes. Many shops closed in 2024-2025 because of EFRIS enforcement without education.
5. EFRIS and Instant Fines are Digital Scam.
URA introduced EFRIS but did not train traders. Now a mistake of not issuing a receipt is 2M fine, then 6M. How can a woman selling tomatoes afford 6M? This is not tax collection rather this is punishment of the poor.
6. 11% Tax to GDP yet Harassing the Same 1 Million People.
URA collects only 11% of GDP, the lowest in EAC because they fear to tax the rich and the corrupt who steal billions. So they squeeze the same 1 million compliant Ugandans, boda riders, market women and small shops over and over.
What we ask not request because we are tax payers;
1. Reduce PAYE from 40% to 30% like our neighbors.
2. Reduce VAT from 18% to 10% like Kenya.
3. Stop stacking 6 taxes on one imported item and harmonize to one single tax.
4. Stop EFRIS fines until every trader is trained free of charge.
5. Publish online how every shilling is used.
URA
@URAuganda , you are not collecting tax. You are killing businesses. You are making Uganda the most expensive country to live in East Africa.
If you tax us to death, who will pay tax tomorrow?
We Pay Tax, We Deserve Respect, Not Scam.
#TaxJusticeUg #EndOverTaxation