KAMPALA, Uganda — The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has stepped up enforcement against Ugandan tax residents with undisclosed foreign income or assets, giving affected taxpayers until mid-2027 to regularise their affairs voluntarily before it begins using internationally shared financial data for audits and investigations.
The tax authority says it has begun issuing short, targeted notices to individuals whose names and Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) have been matched to foreign income or assets identified through international data-sharing channels.
According to tax advisory firm Grant Thornton, the notices require recipients to regularise their tax records within seven days or face formal investigation — a marked shift from URA’s previous reliance on voluntary disclosures, whistleblowers or chance discovery of undeclared wealth.
A new era of cross-border tax data
The enforcement drive is anchored in the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAAC) Implementation Act, enacted in 2023, which allows URA to receive financial account information on Ugandan tax residents from more than 125 partner jurisdictions worldwide.
URA says it has this year begun receiving detailed records directly from overseas financial institutions, mirroring similar international information-exchange systems that have exposed significant undisclosed offshore wealth in other countries.
Rather than relying solely on enforcement, URA has also opened a parallel voluntary disclosure window, urging Ugandan tax residents to come forward and correct any errors or omissions in past returns before their information is used for audit or investigation purposes.
“In line with our commitment to encouraging voluntary compliance, URA is giving affected tax residents the opportunity to correct any errors or omissions in their previous returns before the information is used for audit or investigation,” URA management said in a notice on the initiative.
How the voluntary disclosure process works
To benefit from the more favourable terms on offer, taxpayers are required to complete a voluntary foreign asset disclosure form via the URA online portal and amend their tax returns covering the past three years, in line with the law.
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URA has stressed that relief will apply only where taxpayers provide accurate and complete disclosure before they are detected or before an audit is opened — meaning taxpayers who wait until after being flagged lose access to the reduced penalties associated with voluntary compliance.
The authority has cautioned that failure to voluntarily declare foreign income or assets could result in significant penalties once its auditors begin working through the growing stream of cross-border financial data.
Part of a broader compliance push
The crackdown on offshore wealth comes as URA pursues an ambitious annual revenue target and intensifies compliance efforts across multiple fronts, including reminders to taxpayers to file returns and clear arrears ahead of standard filing deadlines.
URA Commissioner General John Rujoki Musinguzi has previously urged taxpayers to treat early filing and disclosure as a way to avoid penalties and access manageable payment arrangements, rather than waiting until enforcement action becomes unavoidable.
Tax analysts say the move signals a structural shift in how Uganda polices offshore wealth, moving the country’s tax administration away from a system reliant on self-reporting toward one increasingly powered by real-time, internationally verified financial data — a shift likely to affect Ugandans with business interests, property or investments abroad, including members of the diaspora.
