On 20 October 2023, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) released a public notice on the implementation of digital service tax (DST). Accordingly, URA informs the general public and non-resident persons providing digital services that the Income Tax Act was amended with effect from July 01, 2023 to provide for taxation of non-resident persons providing digital services to persons in Uganda.

Digital services for purposes of income tax include:

  1.  Online advertising services;
  2.  Data services;
  3.  Services delivered through an online marketplace or intermediation platform, including an accommodation online marketplace, a vehicle hire online marketplace, and any other transport online marketplace;
  4.  Digital content services including accessing and downloading of digital content;
  5.  Online gaming services;
  6.  Cloud computing services;
  7.  Data warehousing;
  8.  Any other services delivered through a social media platform or any internet search engine; and
  9.  Any other digital services as the Minister may prescribe by a statutory instrument made under the Income Tax Act

A non-resident person supplying the above services to any person in Uganda is therefore obliged to:

  1. Register for Income Tax through the URA web portal www.ura.go.ug. However, a non-resident person who is already registered for taxes for purposes of accounting for Value Added Tax (VAT) on electronic services supplied to persons in Uganda need not register again;
  2. File quarterly returns within 15 days after the end of the calendar quarters of January to March, April to June, July to September, and October to December, declaring the amount of revenue sourced from Uganda. For the avoidance of doubt, the returns are required to be submitted by the 15th day of April, July, October, and January;
  3. Pay a 5% tax on the gross revenue sourced from Uganda by the 15th day of April, July, October, and January.

Resident taxpayers and the general public are informed that they are required to withhold tax on payments made to non-resident suppliers of digital services who are not registered with URA under the electronic services taxation regime. The list of registered non-resident service providers shall be availed on the URA web portal.

Please note that the quarterly return form to facilitate the filing and payment of the tax will be provided on the URA portal.