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FULFILLING OUR
TAX EDUCATION
MANDATE
Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

1

URA VISION
To be a model for Best Practice and Innovation in Revenue Services.

URA MISSION
To Provide Excellent Revenue Services with Purpose and Passion.

URA CORE VALUES
Excellence, Integrity, Team Work and Respect

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Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

Acronyms and Defined Terms
CD

Customs Department

DT

Domestic Taxes Department

ESA

Education Standards Agency

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

GOU

Government of Uganda

MOES

Ministry of Education and Sports

MOFPED

Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic

Development
NCDC

National Curriculum Development Centre

NCHE

National Council for Higher Education

NSC

National Speech Championships

PSFU

Private Sector foundation of Uganda

PCA

Public and Corporate Affairs Division

TPD

Taxpayers’ Day

UIA

Uganda Investment Authority

UMA

Uganda Manufacturers Association

UNCCI

Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and

Industry
UNEB

Uganda National Examinations Board

URA

Uganda Revenue Authority

USSIA

Uganda Small Scale Industrialists Association

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Content Page
Acronyms and Defines Tems……………………………………… 3
Word from the Commissioner General... ………………………… 5
Background…………… …………………………………………… 7
What we Set Out to Achieve
Start and Promotion of URA Call Center Services…… ………… 11
Production of Simplified Tax Information………………………

12

Translation of Tax information……………………… ……………

13

Availability of the Web portal and Intranet………………………

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Increased Taxpayer and stakeholder interaction………………

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Taxpayers’ day ……………………………………………..…........ 15
Tax Clinics………………………………………………..…............ 17
Partnerships…………………..................…..…………....…........... 20
Exhibition……………….........…………………..……….................. 21
Radio Talk Show Programs ........................…………….…......... 23
Introduction of Tax Education in Uganda’s School Education…... 24
Key Achievements………………………………………………….... 29
Major Challenges faced under Tax Education………….………. .. 31

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Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

Word from
Commissioner General

U

ganda Revenue Authority
(URA) undertook a massive tax education campaign aimed at empowering all its stakeholders and the general public with tax knowledge in order to greatly increase the level of tax compliance. The campaign has and continues to target all Uganda Revenue
Authority stakeholders that have been categorized in various interest groups and business sectors. In our continued effort to promote Tax compliance amongst citizens, URA prioritized the Taxpayer Services and Tax Education
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in its transformation drive.
This is also in line with a conviction that revenue collection can only be sustainable, if the nationals are made to appreciate why they pay taxes. It is additionally used as a tool to empower stakeholders with knowledge about the various Taxes administered by the organisation.

tax matters has been embraced through many approaches ranging from a one to one interaction to meeting stakeholders in groups. URA intends to continue investing in this drive, so that our taxpayers can be served better and ultimately boost Tax compliance.
We anticipate that this booklet
The importance of reaching out on Tax Education will go a long to the Taxpaying community as way in informing our stakeholdwell as helping the young gen- ers and the public what URA’s eration understand the value of achievements have been under taxation in a country cannot be this drive-to-date in addition to underscored. For this reason the understanding how and where sensitization of the public on they can participate.

Developing Uganda Together
Allen Kagina (Mrs)

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Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

Background

U

ganda Revenue Authority was established by the URA Statute of 1991. This resulted into the integration of three Tax Administration Departments that were responsible for all the taxes collected by the Central Government of Uganda. These Departments were Customs and Excise, Inland Revenue, and the Income
Tax Department.
As the central tax body, URA is responsible for the assessment and collection of specified revenue and accounts to government for it.
URA also administers and enforces the laws relating to such revenue, advises the Minister of Finance on matters of policy relating to all the taxes administered and educates taxpayers and the general public on tax matters.

Approach to Tax Education before Restructuring
URA
Prior to restructuring, educating taxpayers was carried out by the
Tax Education and Public Relations Division under the Commissioner General’s Department. The approach at the time relied on production and distribution of pamphlets; quarterly newsletters in addition to radio and television programmes. There was however limited face-to-face interaction with the taxpayers/public.

New Approach to Tax Education
Restructuring URA was done in 2005 with the objective of creating efficiency and effectiveness in tax administration. This led to the merger and creation of new departments/divisions/units.

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It is against this background that the Public and Corporate Affairs
Division was created under the Commissioner General’s Department. This new Division, through the Tax Education Unit is responsible for planning and coordinating tax education programmes aimed at increasing tax literacy, enhancing voluntary tax compliance and ultimately increasing revenue collections.
The new approach to Tax Education involves all URA staff in the Tax education initiatives. This is a giant step towards increasing tax literacy.
Staff at URA stations nation wide are able to organise tax sensitisation workshops without having to rely on resource persons from the head office. In order to professionally manage the tax sensitisation seminars in Kampala Region, a resource team comprising of staff from Customs and Domestic Taxes Departments was put in place. 8

Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

Immediately after restructuring in 2005, URA undertook a massive
Tax Education campaign with the aim of empowering all its stakeholders and the general public with tax knowledge geared towards enhancing voluntary compliance and subsequently boosting revenue collection.
The campaign targets all URA stakeholders broadly categorized into business sectors and interest groups. Recently the focus has broadened to include the young generation through the development of the schools’ taxation curriculum from primary up to tertiary levels of education.
Simple strategies have been adopted to supplement the existing tax education initiatives. These include the revitalization of various awareness and sensitization programs such as Radio Talk shows and Tax Clinics. This has enabled URA to create rapport with her stakeholders; establish a vibrant and interactive tax Information desk, and introduce the Taxpayers’ Appreciation Day.
URA is proud to have spearheaded the incorporation of the Taxation Curriculum in the education syllabus for the country right from primary to the tertiary levels of education.

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WHAT WE SET OUT TO ACHIEVE
1.

EMPOWER TAXPAYERS AND STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH

INCREASED TAX AWARENESS CREATION OF THE TAX

INFORMATION DESK

A

s earlier noted, revamping the tax information desk was one of URA’s initiatives to reach out to taxpayers.

URA is responsible for producing simplified tax reading materials for the taxpayers and the general public. URA has published various materials both in English and vernacular languages targeting potential and actual taxpayers to enhance their knowledge about various tax issues and to subsequently improve compliance levels amongst the taxpaying community.
URA has utilised the following outreach avenues to target different sections of the public/tax payers in a broad and comprehensive manner. What has been done?

URA Call Centre

Simplified tax literature, cartoon magazines and translations into 9 local languages.

Improved customer care through Client Service Standards & Revised Taxpayer Charter.
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Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

THE START AND PROMOTION OF URA CALL CENTRE SERVICES
URA started a toll free call centre service aimed at providing free and prompt services to her clients. This service is available from 8:00am to
5:00pm Monday – Friday via the toll-free helpline 0800 11 7000. The
Call Centre is currently manned by five (5) staff, but there is a plan to deploy more staff in future.
URA launched a radio talk show program to make the availability of the toll free help-line services known. Increased awareness about the
Call Centre services was immediately reflected through the increased number of in-coming calls which has risen from an average of 450 calls to 4,000 calls per month.
The call center is a useful tax sensitisation and feed back medium. The free service has also benefited taxpayers who are now able to access vital information relating to URA’s business processes/procedures on telephone instead of physical visits to URA premises. This has ultimately impacted positively on compliance levels.

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PRODUCTION OF SIMPLIFIED TAX
INFORMATION
This task addresses a wide selection of tax-related information and has been achieved in 4 ways:•

Pamphlets
Various pamphlets on specific tax matters or law are published in a simplified and easy to understand format. A minimum of 20 different brochures /pamphlets are updated and about six new ones produced within a year. Massive production is handled in-house ensuring that information for the clients is readily available.


Taxpayer cartoon magazine Acul Ocolo is published on a quarterly basis. It addresses a specific topic in detail and targets adult readers. It is an ‘easy read’ publication for taxpayers with cartoon illustrations to lighten the tax subject matter through cartoons and texts.
Two other cartoon magazines namely Toto and Teeny targeting the young readers in primary and secondary schools were introduced and are published every year on a quarterly basis.
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Booklet of Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs)
A booklet containing FAQs is compiled on a regular basis. An analysis of the questions frequently received via the toll-free helpline, public debates and tax clinics during a given period are incorporated into the booklet. This is utilized as a handbook for informing both the taxpayers and staff manning the taxpayer service desks.


Posters on Topical Tax Issues This is a campaign to advertise specific tax matters or laws for the benefit of tax payers. Specific topical issues
e.g. The Tax Payers Charter Rights & Obligations are also published and distributed to inform the public.
TRANSLATION OF TAX INFORMATION INTO VERNACULAR LANGUAGES
Tax information has been translated into nine major local languages.
These include; Ateso, Lugbara,
Luganda, Lumasaba, Luo, RunyoroRutooro, Runyankore-Rukiga and
Swahili for the benefit of sections of our taxpayers not in a position

to read the English language. URA monitors the typesetting, printing and distribution of approximately
100 pamphlets on selected topics to all URA taxpayer service desks countrywide on a monthly basis.
TAX INFORMATION AVAILED VIA
THE WEBPORTAL AND
CORPORATE MAILS
A variety of updated tax information and laws are hosted on the
URA web portal and intranet for the benefit of the external and internal
(staff ) clients respectively. The URA web portal is accessible on https:// ura.go.ug. Additionally, the webportal enhances the management of electronic business transactions.
On the other hand, the corporate intranet serves to educate and update staff on new processes and information. Staff can also share experiences from their various stations country wide.
Simplified tax information is generated, published in electronic format and dispatched to various needs of the corporate clients via their respective corporate mail addresses on a monthly basis. Requests for specific information are received and responded to by the staff manning the Call Centre.
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Suzan managing the Intranet

2.

INCREASE TAXPAYER AND
STAKEHOLDER
INTERACTION

Below is an elaboration of what has been conducted under these events. URA’s Campaign to partner with the Public through Tax
Sensitization Programs
URA embarked on the strategy to partner with taxpayers and selected stakeholders to educate taxpayers and the general public about taxes. This has been through increased interactions both on radio talk shows and workshops in addition to physical courtesy visits to tax payers’ premises.

What has been done? l Tax Payers’ Day – designated day headed by the URA Management to educate taxpayers countrywide and to also get feedback from the taxpayers about
URA services. lTax Clinics for 10 business sectors, special interest groups, & business associations.

lRadio Talk shows conducted countrywide on various local
Additionally, “Tax Clinics” were radio stations. launched. URA meets with members of the business community lPartnership with key stakein their respective segments and holders ie. UIA, UNCCI, USSIA in trains them on topics of their sensitizing their members and enterprenuers choice to enhance compliance.
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Tax Education Package
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Moses Kibumba, Manager Domestic Taxes Dept. addressing taxpayers in Kampala

START OF THE TAX
PAYERS’ DAY
In a bid to identify more with taxpayers and address their concerns, URA introduced a special day dubbed ‘Tax Payers’ Day’
(TPD) in 2005. The day’s events are simultaneously conducted in the 29 URA Tax districts. The TPD

provides a forum for educating taxpayers on tax-related issues/ topics according to the needs in the respective areas.
At the same time, the TPDs provides an opportunity for URA
Management to visit the field workplaces and interact with both staff and the taxpaying

Taxpayers day 2010 - Taxpayers responding to the Tax presentation
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Taxpayers Day in one of the upcountry towns - Arua

community. This interaction has enabled URA management to learn and appreciate the concerns/needs of the taxpayers.
This has resulted into the improvement of URA business processes with a view of improving efficiency and enhancing voluntary compliance.

During the TPD, URA targets to meet and educate the business community on relevant topics.
URA has between July 2005 and
July 2010 held 406 tax payer’s days in 29 tax districts.

Tax Clinic for Parliamentarians
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Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

CG -Allen Kagina, closing the Tax clinic in Nakasero Community, Kampala

THE INTRODUCTION OF TAX
CLINICS

Tax Clinics have proved an effective communication tool because they are focused, easier to manage and reach out to all business sectors within the nation. So far, implementation of the Tax Clinics program has taken the three approaches below:-

The need for focused meetings where tax issues affecting specific business sectors/interest groups would be addressed was critical following feedback received through interactions during TPDs.
Business Sector
This led to the introduction of Tax a. Approach
Clinics.
Tax Clinics are organised for each
Consequently, the Commission- of the ten (10) business sectors er General of URA appointed a namely:20-member resource team from • Agriculture, Forestry and
Customs and Domestic Taxes de- Fishing partments to educate taxpayers • Mining and Quarrying under different business sectors.
• Manufacturing
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• Electricity, Gas and Water
• Construction
• Transport, Storage and Communication
• General Trade
• Financing, Insurance, Real Estate and Business Service
• Community, Social and Personal Services
• Tourism and Hotels

to other key stakeholders within the business community, another approach was devised targeting
Special Interest groups.
Examples of these Interest groups include:• Opinion leaders or Influential
People like Members of Parliament, Local Councilors and Religious leaders.
• Professional Community like
Accountants & Auditors, Archib.
Special Interest Groups Approach tects, Lawyers, Teachers and
Bankers.
It was noted that although the
Business Sector approach was ap- • Diplomats. preciated, it was not extensively • Foreign Trading Community
i.e. Indian and Chinese Comembraced. In order to reach out

A workshop for lawyers organised in May 2010 at Hotel Africana-Kampala

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CG, Allen Kagina at at the opening of a Diplomats Tax Workshop, April, 2010.

munities
• Media – Business journalists/ reporters; these are key stakeholders in disseminating tax related information to the public.
There is need to sensitize this group to empower them with knowledge to be able to analyse tax issues and report from an informed point of view.
c. Weekly Tax Meetings/
Trading community Zones

kets. This arose out of a need to address pressing tax issues that could not be satisfactorily addressed in one meeting as well as to systematically create tax awareness amongst these communities; and thus partner with them to improve URA’s service delivery. Tax clinics of this nature span a period of 3 – 6 months in a particular community. So far, URA has successfully conducted tax sensitization for three very busy trading communities namely:- The Tax Clinics program further evolved to include weekly sensitization programs specifically targeting trading communities like 1. Kikuubo Trading Community market vendors and super mar- ( January 2008 – August 2008)
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2.) Nakasero Trading Community
(October 2008 – February
2009)
3.) Kiyembe Trading Community
(September – December 2009)

In the central region (Entebbe,
Mukono and Kampala) and in up-country towns, 98 and 116
Tax clinics were organized between January 2008 and June
2010 respectively.

PARTNERSHIPS

URA has embarked on a number of partnerships with well established bodies such as the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
Uganda Investment Authority, the Uganda Small Scale Industrialists Association and Brirish
American Tobacco. These bodies in partnership with URA organize workshops for their members. URA is allocated sessions

where it’s technical staff deliberate on a number of pertinent topics about taxation.
These gatherings are also used as avenues of receiving taxpayer complaints and queries on various taxation issues. This interaction has enabled URA to improve its policies on customer care and enhance compliance.

(L-R) Geofrey Balamaga (URA), Ibrahim Bbosa (UNBS) & Enock Walugembe
(BAT) at the Anti-illicit trade seminar in Kiboga - Aug 24, 2010

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Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

EXHIBITIONS

URA has ventured into this avenue to disseminate tax information. Exhibitions by organisations in the public and private sector are held at various intervals in a year. Higher Education (NCHE) and the
Member Day’s Exhibition organized by the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda(PSFU).

During the exhibitions, the URA team composed of officers from
URA actively participates in a Customs and Domestic Taxes number of exhibitions. Notable educate participants on various among them are; the Uganda In- aspects of taxation. ternational Trade Fair organized by Uganda Manufacturers Associ- Tax literature on a cross range of ation (UMA) once every year, Na- issues is equally distributed. tional Schools Exhibitions organized by the National Council of

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1st Deputy Premier and Min. for East African Community Affairs, Eria Kategaya at the 3rd East African Investment Conference at Munyonyo April 27-30, 2010
URA participated in the
UMA Trade Show - Oct 2009

Education Min. Geraldine Bitamazire visits the URA
Stall during the East African University
Exhibition at UMA Show Grounds Lugogo-May 2009

State Minister for Trade, Gagawala Wambuzi visits the URA stall at the PSFU exhibition-2010
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Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

LAUNCH OF URA RADIO TALK
SHOW PROGRAMS

I

n 2006, URA undertook a client satisfaction survey which indicated that radio programmes were more effective in the tax sensitisation drive. Consequently in 2007, URA launched the live/interactive radio talk show program in the Central Region (Kampala, Entebbe and
Mukono) with the highest number of both potential and actual taxpayers. These include traders in the informal sector and small to medium enterprenuers (SMEs). Thereafter, the talk show programs have been organised weekly within the central region since 2008 to date. A minimum of 4 talk show programs are conducted in each of the selected
23 upcountry towns since 2009.
The objectives of the talk shows are to:•
Enhance effective communication between URA and her stakeholders.

Increase tax awareness and knowledge among the taxpaying community and general public so as to enhance tax compliance.
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Empower taxpayers with knowledge of their rights and obligations. Benefits from the Radio talk show program in the Central Region (vernacular talk show program) include:a.
Increased awareness on various tax topics / issues/ procedures.
The program greatly enabled URA disseminate tax information to the taxpayers and the general public on tax and tax-related issues like Tax
Amnesty, Rights and Obligations of taxpayers, taxes administered by
URA, Tax Law amendments and updates about URA transformation initiatives on a wider coverage.
b.
Improved URA Corporate Image
Through the live talk shows, URA is able to quickly pass on information and receive feedback from a wider public due to the wider outreach and listenership. The public is also able to engage URA for clarifications and discussions on various URA processes/procedures.
Finally the radio stations have acted as public relations mouth pieces for URA, regularly providing information to enlighten the public on the changes in the Institution and the improved business processes.

3.

INTRODUCTION OF TAX EDUCATION IN UGANDA’S
SCHOOL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TAXATION CURRICULUM IN THE SCHOOL
SYLLABUS
What has been done?
• Syllabus developed for Primary, Secondary, Advanced and
Vocational/ Tertiary Levels.
• First examinations on tax matters undertaken in 2008.
• Introduced National Speech
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Championships for Secondary schools as a follow up to the curriculum. • Climax in competition for 1st
Phase of National Speech
Championships conducted in
June 2009.

Genesis
The Purpose of developing a
As part of its 2006-2010 Corpo- Taxation Curriculum rate Plan, Uganda Revenue Authority embarked on a massive The taxation curriculum is intendtax education campaign aimed at ed to address the need for collecimproving the level of tax compli- tive responsibility towards nationance and creating a tax compliant al development and appreciation generation. of one’s obligation towards taxation for all the Ugandan citizenry.
It’s against this background that the students’ fraternity was identi- It is specifically geared towards fied as a key focus group in order targeting our future generation to target and create a tax compli- on tax compliance right from their ant future generation. This led to tender ages at the primary level of the development of a taxation education. curriculum for the different levels in Uganda’s education system.
Targeting the pupils and students is strategic in changing their atThe development of a school cur- titude towards taxation and thus riculum to include tax education produce responsible citizens. was a landmark for Uganda’s future generation, and Uganda Rev- Currently, the taxation curriculum enue Authority. is being implemented in the Primary Schools Syllabus under the
This was achieved through stra- Integrated Primary Skills subject tegic partnerships with several for primary five (5) to seven (7), key stakeholders namely Minis- Secondary Schools Syllabus Ortry of Education and Sports and dinary and Advanced level under its different Departments that is the Entrepreneurship subject, and the National Council of Higher Vocational/Tertiary Institutions
Education, National Curriculum Syllabus in different subjects.
Development Centre, Education
Standards Agency and all Heads of Schools and Institutions.

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Overview of work done to-date
Accreditation of the developed material was done by a panel of members from NCDC, UNEB, ESA and practicing teachers approved by NCDC. This process involved certification of the material which was developed by the URA task force and infusion of the certified material in the respective subjects at the different levels in Uganda’s education system. The panel held a ten-day review session for primary, secondary and vocational taxation curriculum material with the following outcomes: •
The current school Syllabi

Teacher’s/Instructor’s Guides

Pupils’/Students’ Workbooks

Specimen examination question papers (copies availed to URA).

URA and certified and approved by all concerned stakeholders.
The Curriculum led to a URA National Schools’ Speech Championship. In order to monitor implementation of the taxation curriculum at the different education levels, URA developed a number of schools outreach programs targeting the entire school community to specifically: -

i. Monitor how well taxation is being taught, prepare reports and devise means of enhancing partnership with stakeholders in the Ministry of
Education and Sports and the
NCDC,
ii. Create rapport with our stakeholders for superb comprehension of the concept of introducing tax education in the
The infused taxation material was school’s curriculum in order to presented to the URA taskforce by achieve the set objectives in
NCDC for approval and thereafter the long run, a final report was submitted to iii. Improve URA’s image, and
URA at the end of January 2008. iv. Ultimately increase tax awareTo-date Uganda’s education sysness and boost voluntary tax tem boasts of a comprehensive compliance. taxation curriculum initiated by
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National Speech Championships

O

ne of the concepts developed for the Schools outreach Programs is the National
Speech Championships (NSC). It is a project initiated with the vision of reaching out to pupils and students across the country by providing them with an opportunity to acquire tax knowledge, develop their communication and presentation skills through the speech competitions organized at various levels. The overall goal of NSCs is to inculcate a taxpaying culture within the young generation.

Implementation of the Speeches
Competition
A theme for the competition was developed by a team of tax experts and sent to contestants before commencement of the campaign.
The theme of the contestants’ speeches was developed based on tax principles. Source materials were obtained from Uganda
Revenue Authority information centers, the internet, taxation publications or elsewhere as long as they focused on Uganda Revenue
Authority’s effort towards the preselected theme for the year.

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Prizes
Contestants at all levels were given prizes. Schools which produced the best contestants at the national level received prizes and/or accolades. Prizes included scholastic materials, iPods, laptops and school bags. The best student from each level earned themselves school fees sponsorship for a year from URA.

National Schools Speech
Championship - Winner of the
Advanced level Ms. Priscilla Nyachwo

The competitions at the local school level took place in March
2009 and the two selected winners (one from each level i.e.
Ordinary and Advanced levels) progressed to the district level competition. The first phase of the
National Speech Championships competition attracted ten Districts namely: - Kampala, Wakiso,
Mubende, Mityana, Mpigi, Luwe-

ro, Kayunga, Mukono, Kalangala and Masaka.
The National competition was held in June 2009 after the district level competition in March 2009.
Twenty (20) winners from the above mentioned districts, drawn from both Ordinary and Advanced
Levels of education competed for the ultimate prize.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
i. Improved Public Image Various tax education initiatives like TPD, Tax Clinics and
Radio Talk Shows together with media publicity, have enabled URA receive and act on constructive feedback thereby improving her public image. ii. Improved Client Relations URA has registered improvements in her relations with taxpayers through creation of rapport during TPDs, Tax Clinics and Radio Talk shows. In addition, the toll-free helpline has provided useful feedback which
URA Management has used to improve service delivery to her clients. Tax Education Package
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iii. ntroduction of Taxation in
I
the Uganda’s School Education
Curriculum
One of URA’s biggest achievements in the period has been the introduction of Taxation in Uganda’s school education curriculum. This will enable the young generation to learn their obligations, Rights and
Taxes administered by URA and hence nurture a tax compliant generation. iv. Increased level of tax awareness with a positive impact on tax collections URA has been able to reach out to and educate both targeted groups and the general public.
The level of tax awareness has increased as a result of this initiative and this is partly reflected in the increase of voluntary registration of the taxpayers.
v. Building and strengthening partnerships with Stakeholders URA has been able to build and strengthen partnerships with some of her stakeholders. URA has organized Tax Clinics and
Radio Talk show programmes jointly with key stakeholders.
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MAJOR CHALLENGES FACED UNDER TAX EDUCATION

F

requency of tax clinics and devote extra time in order to radio talk shows is still low strike a balance between exefor up-country stations with the cuting their core duties in their exception of the Central region, respective departments and which also handles the majority meeting their obligation under of the business transactions, the the tax sensitisation program. frequency of tax clinics/ focused group programs for upcountry b. Information Desk and matestations is still very low primarily rials require major up-lift. due to limited funding. There is a need to substantially boost the information desk
In addition, inadequate logistical through increased funding in support has greatly hampered order to address the following areas:implementation of the proposed monthly radio talk shows for each upcountry Station. Currently URA
• Improvement of the qualcan only afford to hold Radio talk ity and design of pamphlets shows on a quarterly basis. printed in-house from being predominantly black and
a. Facilitation of the Tax Eduwhite text to full colour print cation and URA Resource to make them attractive to
Teams
the readers. This could be There is need for more faciliby way of procuring: better tation by way of training and quality printing paper; modskills development in order to ern full colour copy printer build capacity to ensure that
(RISO RP) machine capable the task is excellently handled. of producing quality documents. There is also a challenge of rewarding and motivating staff
• Production of more issues of involved in tax education as the cartoon magazine and resource persons. It should to increase quantities probe noted that they have to duced within a year.
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The current budget provisions cannot meet the desired levels in terms of quantity and frequency of publication. c. Television programs Little emphasis has been placed on utilization of live television programs to sensitise taxpayers and the general public about taxes due to the high costs of running such programs. That’s why in the short and medium term, URA opted to rely on relatively less expensive avenues like tax clinics and radio talk shows. However, this can still be a useful extension of URA’s information dissemination strategy.
d. Use of Drama in the Tax Education programmes URA has not been able to fully explore the avenue of reaching out to taxpayers through drama due to resource constraints. It is envisaged that the use of drama programmes would enable URA to reach out to and educate a substantial proportion of the public in an entertaining way. In order to
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achieve this objective, URA requests for and seeks the support of Development partners.
e. Monitoring implementation of the taxation curriculum in schools i. Setting up Tax Clubs in schools URA requires additional financial support in order to implement the above initiative. The objective of setting up tax clubs in schools is to enable URA follow up on implementation of the taxation curriculum in schools . The tax clubs will act as a channel of disseminating tax information to the schools and their neighbouring communities. Indeed URA will closely monitor the progress mde by schools in tax awareness ii. Sustainability of the National Speech Championship (NSC) URA’s aspiration to organise the NSC annually remains a big challenge owing to the amount of money required to successfully implement it. Subject to availability of f. Translation of tax literature funds, it would be ideal to Given the low literacy levels organise the NSC at the in the country, many people are not able to compreRegional Level per year for hend tax issues published each of the five (5) Regions in the English language, namely Central, Northern,
Southern-Western, Western and hence, the need to frequently translate more tax and Eastern Regions. This literature in the major local would give an opportunity languages. However, transfor more schools (hence lation of additional tax mamore students) to particiterial (more topics/issues) pate in the competition and thus widen the scope of tax and annual updates folsensitization amongst the lowing such developments as changes in the business youth. environment and amendments in the tax laws requires more resources particularly of a logistical and financial nature.

WAY FORWARD
From the foregoing, it is evident that resource limitation in terms of funds remains a major challenge to the Tax Education programs, and hence, URA needs to lobby Government and other stakeholders for increased funding of the Tax Education activities in order to achieve URA’s long run objective of increasing voluntary tax compliance.

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Taxman.indd 80

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Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

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A publication of

Uganda Revenue Authority
P. O. Box 7279 Kampala, Uganda
Telephone: (0417)442 054, 442 055, 443 150
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Tax Education Package
Public & Corporate Affairs, Uganda Revenue Authority

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