Critical evaluation of Tax Administration and Tax Compliance under The URA in Uganda

Abstract

Despite the certainty of taxes, compliance among citizens has been questionable. The study set out to evaluate the effect of tax administration on tax compliance in Uganda. Previously, tax administration was riddled with corrupt, unscrupulous, unprofessional, self-oriented, disinterested, demotivated human resource – who were equipped with a cumbersome manual tax administration system. This made tax compliance more challenging for both the taxpayer and the revenue authority and revenue collected trifling, the non-compliant taxpayers took advantage of the situation as well as the tax administration. Thus, Uganda Revenue Authority sought to remedy the situation and carried out various reforms to improve and position its tax administration in order to combat tax compliance. Among the reforms was the human resource restructuring and business modernization process which encompassed the management information system and the famous etax. The study evaluated some of the reforms and concluded that the reforms yielded some positive results, more taxpayers became compliant and the taxpayer register grew. However, the study also revealed that combating tax compliance is not a one-off activity but rather a work in progress.