More attention is being paid to the role of property-related taxes in generating domestic revenue in African countries. However, rental income taxes – a significant aspect of property-related taxes – are largely overlooked in academic literature. Starting in 2014, in a bid to enhance compliance and boost revenue collection from rental income taxes, the Government of Uganda and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) introduced various legal and administrative reforms.
This paper analyses the impact of these reforms. It relies on analysis of legal reforms, interviews with tax experts in the public and private sector in Uganda, and analysis of anonymised tax administration data from URA. The paper contributes to the literature on taxation of rental income in Africa by making three main observations: it is difficult to tax rental income in a context like Uganda; the methods URA used to expand the taxpayer register made URA prey to the ‘registration obsession’; and there are more changes to the law on taxing rental income than one would expect if the government was experimenting with finding the best methods.
Summary of ICTD Working Paper 226
