EFRIS now reaches every restaurant, bar and lodge, VAT or not
URA lists accommodation and food service among sectors that must use EFRIS whatever their VAT status. What a receipt carries, penalties and how to connect.
For years the rule of thumb was simple: if you were not registered for VAT, EFRIS was somebody else's problem. URA's current EFRIS guidance changes that for hospitality. Accommodation and food service is one of the sectors URA now lists as required to use EFRIS regardless of VAT status. This post explains what that means for a restaurant, a bar or a lodge, and what the receipt you hand the guest must contain.
What EFRIS is
The Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution is URA's platform for recording sales and transmitting the transaction data to URA in real time. URA is careful to say it is not a tax but a record-keeping and monitoring tool, with its legal basis in sections 92 and 93 of the Tax Procedures Code Act, Cap 343.
Who must use it
URA's EFRIS page sets out two groups. The first is all VAT-registered taxpayers; URA's hotel sector page puts it plainly: "It is mandatory for all VAT registered taxpayers to issue e-invoices or e-receipts". URA publishes the current VAT registration threshold on its VAT page.
The second group is businesses in twelve designated sectors, which URA says must use EFRIS whether or not they are VAT registered. The list includes manufacturing, mining and quarrying, construction, real estate, ICT, professional services, arts and entertainment, wholesale and retail fuel, and "accommodation and food service". A guesthouse with six rooms, a bar on the trading centre road and a restaurant well below the VAT threshold all fall inside that description. Other non-VAT businesses may join voluntarily.
E-invoice or e-receipt
The two documents look similar and differ in one section. An e-invoice is issued by VAT-registered sellers and carries the seller and buyer details, the line items, the tax details and a summary. An e-receipt is issued by non-VAT taxpayers and omits the tax section. Both, along with e-credit notes and e-debit notes, carry three identifiers from URA: a Fiscal Document Number (FDN), a verification code and a QR code. A customer can validate any document by entering the FDN and the issue date in the EFRIS app or portal.
For a VAT-registered buyer, your e-invoice is also their evidence: URA states that no input tax credit is allowed on purchases unless they are supported by e-invoices or e-receipts. A company that books twenty rooms for a workshop will ask for a proper e-invoice, and will go elsewhere if you cannot produce one.
Outages
URA says e-invoices and e-receipts can still be issued when the network is down, in offline mode, through the EFRIS app, the desktop software or a system-to-system integration, but the taxpayer must reconnect within five days to upload the documents generated. A bar that loses its internet connection on Friday night can keep selling; it cannot keep selling for a week without syncing.
The penalties
URA lists a penal tax of double the tax due or 10 currency points, whichever is higher, for failing to use EFRIS where it is mandatory, for failing to issue an e-invoice or e-receipt, and for tampering with a fiscal device. A currency point is UGX 20,000, so the floor is UGX 200,000 per offence. Acquiring an unauthorised fiscal device carries a fine of up to 300 currency points, imprisonment of up to three years, or both. URA's hotel sector guide separately notes that a VAT-registered taxpayer who does not adopt EFRIS is liable to penal tax equal to the tax due or 400 currency points, whichever is higher.
How to connect
URA offers several channels. System-to-system integration through an API suits businesses with a point-of-sale or accounting system, with integration support through URA's touchpoint portal. A desktop client application can be installed on a PC or tablet and works offline for up to five days. The web portal is reserved for businesses with no billing system, fewer than 100 transactions a day and annual sales below UGX 2 billion, and has no offline mode. There is also a mobile app, and electronic fiscal devices that the taxpayer buys.
For a restaurant, the choice is driven by volume and by the bill. Dozens of tables, split bills, service charge and bar tabs do not fit the web portal's one-receipt-at-a-time model; they need the till to produce the fiscal document as the bill closes.
What to do now
- Decide which group you are in. VAT registered, or a non-VAT accommodation or food service business: either way, you need EFRIS.
- Choose the channel that fits your bill volume and your internet.
- Make sure every receipt shows the FDN, the verification code and the QR code, and that the tax lines are correct for your registration status.
- Train the floor staff: every bill is fiscalised, and anything issued offline is uploaded within five days.
- Keep the records. URA's sector guide asks for records to be kept for five years in English.
The guest will not notice the QR code on the receipt. URA will notice its absence.
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