Business 21 June 2026 Daily Monitor (Uganda)

Uganda's Tax Register Balloons, Yet Revenue Remains Concentrated

Despite a significant expansion in Uganda's taxpayer rolls, revenue collection remains heavily reliant on a small group of top contributors. New reforms aim to broaden the tax base by linking tax identification numbers to national and business registration data. Source: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/business/finance/large-tax-register-but-very-few-pay--5504536

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is set to implement a new system starting July 1, 2026, requiring taxpayers to migrate their Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) to either a National Identification Number (NIN) for individuals or a Business Registration Number (BRN) for businesses. This move, designed to enhance compliance and update records by integrating tax data with national identity and business registries, comes as URA grapples with a persistent issue: a rapidly growing taxpayer register that does not translate into a wider base of tax contributors.

Over the past five years, URA’s taxpayer register has seen an astounding increase, nearly tripling from 1.78 million in June 2021 to 5.25 million by June 2025. This growth is largely attributed to individual taxpayers. However, despite the surge in registrations, revenue collections remain disproportionately concentrated among the top 1,000 taxpayers, who consistently account for approximately three-quarters of all taxes collected annually.

For instance, in the 2023/24 financial year, these top taxpayers contributed 75.81 percent of total gross collections. This concentration has even intensified, with their share rising from 72.3 percent in the 2021/22 financial year to 75.69 percent in 2024/25. Crucially, nearly 83 percent of the revenue growth experienced over the last four years originated from this elite group, while the millions of newly registered taxpayers contributed only about 17 percent of the increase.

The NIN-BRN transition is expected to be a game-changer for URA. By linking tax information directly to national identity and business databases, the authority aims to improve data accuracy, identify inactive registrations, and more effectively monitor compliance. This reform is anticipated to help URA differentiate between actively contributing taxpayers and dormant accounts, ultimately strengthening enforcement and potentially broadening the tax burden.

The ultimate success of this reform will be measured not by the sheer volume of registered taxpayers, but by URA’s ability to transition from mere registration to effective tax compliance, ensuring that the burden of funding the government is more equitably distributed. The challenge has shifted from expanding the register to ensuring that the registered taxpayers contribute their fair share.