City accountant netted by URA for issuing false invoices worth Ugx50b

City accountant netted by URA for issuing false invoices worth Ugx50b

By Wod Omoro

Wabyona Jackson Rubanjwa, 40 an accountant and a resident of Lumuli Zone Goma Division Mukono district was arrested by URA and taken to the anti-corruption Court on five counts that include making false statements to a tax officer contrary to Section 58(1) (a) of the Tax Procedures Code Act, 2014 and use of a false Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).

During the period January 2018 and June 2021, while filing monthly VAT returns for Sun Mutual Capital Limited, investigations revealed that supplies amounting to Ugx25,304,417,083 were fictitiously made to 64 people. This caused a tax loss of Ugx4,543,325,065 to the government of Uganda.

While filing VAT returns for the same client (Sun Mutual Capital Limited) between July 2021 – April 2022; Wabyona made fictitious supplies of Ugx24,923,197,428 to 86 people causing a tax loss of Ugx4,486,175,542.

It is further revealed that between October 2019 and March 2022, while filing monthly VAT returns for Jireh Hardware and Construction (2014) Ltd, Wabyona purportedly made false purchases worth Ugx3,635,734,147 from Sun Mutual Capital Limited which caused tax loss of Ugx654,432,146 to the government of Uganda.

On another count between January 2018 to April 2022;the book keeper knowingly and falsely used the TIN of Sun Mutual Capital Limited to generate and issue false supply invoices amounting to Ugx50,227,614,511 thereby causing a tax loss of Ugx9,029,500,609 to  government.

Once found guilty of fraud, the suspect will face penalties that include; imprisonment ranging from 3-10 years; penal tax on unpaid tax at a compounded rate; and fines as prescribed under the Tax Procedures Code (amendment) Act, 2022.

URA advises the general public to always guard the password of their TINs and not to share TIN passwords with anyone because someone might use it for dubious transactions and land the TIN account holder into problems.

Tax payers are also advised to always submit their tax returns and pay taxes on time. URA encourages business owners to have a keen interest in the affairs of the business to ensure that returns are correctly filed and reviewed by the date of submission.

Clients should minimize the use of cash transactions/cash payment systems because they don’t leave enough evidence to help explain their business transactions with URA.

The taxman further advised the public to desist from filing fictitious invoices which are not part of the business in their accounts.

Conclusively, the Authority urges business entities to embrace the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS) because it enables them to track and validate business transactions in real time for efficient business management.

The solution eliminates the risk of physical loss of tax invoices as transactional data or copies are digitally stored in the system.

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