Following a post shared on his LinkedIn account Joseph O. Okuja which is similarly reflected on the facebook page called Tax Ombudsman_Ug, Counsel Joseph O Okuja shares his insights on taxation and the need to have Clinical Legal Education(CLE) if the Tax Man (URA) is to have a Tax compliant society.
The post states as follows,
"It has never been easy and it will never be possible to persuade all taxpayers to comply with the requirements of the tax laws. As a Tax Agent who must assist taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations, and also assist them in exercising their rights under the tax laws, I exert considerable influence on taxpayers in the tax compliance process by either helping them to enforce or exploit the tax law. The dilemma I sometimes face mainly arises from my dual role as a client advocate on the one hand, and a gatekeeper safeguarding the fairness of the tax system, on the other. However, because I owe allegiance to my client first (they pay my bills), the approach I adopt for the various issues brought to my attention is to a great extent couched in terms of the fairness in the actions taken by URA in the assessment process.
The number of administrative assessments being issued by URA is on the increase, but what concerns me is the vagueness of the assessment notices…Most of them lack reasons justifying or explaining the assessment, and yet an aggrieved taxpayer is expected to #validly lodge an objection to the assessment! I am sure this is not an e-tax system problem. The system can only be as good as those who operate it!
I know from daily experiences that there are many taxpayers who want to comply with their tax obligations, but there are also factors that affect the willingness of taxpayers to voluntarily comply. One of them is the absurdity of some assessment notices, coupled with a total lack of clear reasons for the additional assessments issued by the assessing officer. We appreciate that URA is under pressure to expand the tax base and maximise tax revenues, but that is no reason to issue unsubstantiated assessment notices. The tax laws are already complex enough and complexity is one of the sources of unintentional noncompliance. URA actions involving unsubstantiated assessment notices may, if not checked, represent opportunities for intentional noncompliance as well. More often than not, tax practitioners like myself can only reduce the uncertainty by assessing the likelihood a tax treatment will be sustained on its merits.
The Assessment Problem
The requirement for URA to include with an assessment, a statement of reasons why the Commissioner considered it necessary to make the assessment, existed in the principal tax laws but they were repealed in preference for the provisions in the Tax Procedures Code Act (TPCA) which, surprisingly, does not prescribe such a requirement.
While the TPCA does not compel URA to include with an additional assessment, a statement of reasons as to why the Commissioner was not satisfied with the taxpayer’s self-assessment return or otherwise, it is implicit in the law that the assessment must contain reasons..."
to see more of this post follow through on his LinkedIn account https://lnkd.in/drK-ctm By
Waboga David (Law student at Uganda Christian University U.C.U)
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