Uganda

USAID-DRM4D

Nathan, a Cadmus company, was the implementing partner for the USAID-DRM4D project and I was delighted to work with Nathan as the Chief of Party throughout the project. https://www.nathaninc.com/nathan-a-cadmus-company-winner-of-the-2023-ethical-finance-awards/

Addressing the Irish Revenue-Uganda Revenue Authority dinner to mark the signing of the Letter of Agreement between Revenue Irish Tax and Customs and Uganda Revenue Authority February 2024.

I was Chief of Party of the USAID-DRM4D (Domestic Revenue Mobilization for Development) Activity from January 2020 to date.

The highlights of that work included working with other tax professionals to:

Re-write Uganda’s primary tax laws with the objective of updating and modernizing the legislation to give effect to the Government’s Domestic Revenue Mobilization Strategy (DRMS),
Review all Uganda’s Double Taxation Agreements and provide a detailed analysis of each with recommendations for improvement,
Produce a report on Uganda’s Excise Duty regime,
Produce a Cost Benefit Analysis report on Tax Expenditures - a valuable contribution to the discussion on the cost effectiveness of discretionary tax exemptions,
Engage with IBFD to deliver extensive training on tax policy to key MoFPED personnel
Collaborate with MoFPED to review the tax policy making process that resulted in a new National Tax Policy document and a calendar for tax policy-making activities which will guide the work of all stakeholders.
Work with Dutch colleagues to provide training on the taxation of the digital economy,
Facilitate a high-level visit of Uganda senior tax personnel to the Netherlands and Ireland, led by the Commissioner General of URA and the Director, Economic Affairs at MoFPED,
Support URA in Communications and taxpayer education, in taxpayer registration, in rental income, in complex audit and VAT audit, in debt management and debt collection, on data warehouse utilization, and in capacity building, through our collaboration with IBFD colleagues and others,

“Participants at the Development Partners Friends of URA meeting held at URA in February 2024 pose for a group photograph.”

The BEPS Assessment Tool (B.A.T.): Unveiling the Innovations in Tax System Evaluation

The BEPS Assessment Tool (B.A.T.) is a collaborative initiative between IBFD, GIZ and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BUZA) to enhance the evaluation of tax systems in developing countries. The Government of Uganda approved this report and gave permission for it to be published internationally.

Local Government Reforms

Kieran Holmes addressing the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum 12th Annual Mineral Wealth Conference, October 2023.

Local Government reforms were a major part of our work on the USAID-DRM4D project. This link explains how our project revved up local revenues in Uganda: https://cadmusgroup.com/case-studies/revving-up-domestic-revenue-mobilization-in-uganda/

And this link provides more detail on Property Tax enhancement: https://www.cgdev.org/blog/how-can-local-taxation-strengthen-domestic-revenues-uganda-offers-example

Our local government and public private dialogue activities were primarily to: -

Engage professional valuers and value 165,000 properties in the 10 cities, providing GPS coordinates and pictures of each property, and thus vastly expanding the Property Tax base of the cities which had fewer than 20,000 properties valued from paper-based systems at the start,

Work with the cities to have them all re-graded for the purposes of setting new business license fees and rolling-out IT systems to better collect street parking fees. The result is a doubling of own-source local revenues from around UGX 19 billion in 20/21 to an expected UGX 41 billion by the end of June 2024,
Create written Fiscal Social Compacts that resulted in strong trusting relationships between local taxpayers and city officials and mayors which set out clearly the precise services that would be provided in return for the payment of taxes,
Work with the private sector, civil society, and development partners to agree on common messaging for a fairer tax system and advocacy for greater public spending from increased tax revenues on key poverty-reducing sectors such as health, education, and agriculture.

Kieran Holmes at Equator site located in Kayabwe in the Mpigi district on the Masaka - Kampala highway.

Dublin Castle, July 2023. Working with Irish and Ugandan colleagues, I facilitated the first high-level study visit of senior Uganda Revenue Authority and Ministry of Finance colleagues to Dublin. This visit resulted in the creation of a formal agreement between the Irish Revenue and URA that was signed in Kampala in February 2024.