KANGAVE, JALIA, Improving tax administration: a case study of the Uganda Revenue authority, Journal of African Law, 49, 2 (2005): 145–176

The prevalence of poverty in developing countries demands that these countries should improvise internal revenue generating projects to supplement, or better still, ultimately significantly reduce dependence on foreign funding. This way self-sustaining economies will be built. One such internal revenue-generating mechanism, and perhaps the most commonly used, is taxation. This paper makes a case for tax administration as a tool of increasing the contribution of tax revenue to Gross Domestic Product, and consequently, a means of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. The goal of this paper is to propose ways in which the Uganda Revenue Authority (the URA) can improve its tax administration. To achieve this objective, the paper begins with a detailed discussion of the URA's structure and the procedures it follows in collecting taxes. It then highlights the problems that may arise from such structure and procedures, before making proposals on how the URA can reform its organizational structure and processes to maximize its potential in revenue collection capabilities.