Service businesses rarely miss a deadline because the rule is hard. They miss it because the date arrived while the owner was doing something else. This calendar collects the recurring obligations a Ugandan gym, salon, laundry, car wash or repair shop faces, with the source for each, so that it can be pinned up and followed. It is written for a business with a June year end, which is the common case; adjust the annual dates if yours differs.
Every month: the 15th
The 15th is the date that matters most, because two separate authorities use it.
URA monthly returns. URA's returns page lists monthly returns, naming "VAT, WHT, PAYE, LED", as due on "the 15th day of the month following the return period". If you employ staff, the PAYE return for September is due by 15 October, together with the tax withheld. If you are VAT-registered, the VAT return and payment are due in the same window; the VAT page says to "file a VAT return within 15 days after the end of the month" and pay any VAT due in the same period. Withholding tax you have deducted from suppliers follows the same date.
NSSF contributions. The NSSF membership page states that "the payment of contributions must be paid by the 15th day of the following month." The amount is 15% of gross wage for each employee: 5% deducted from the employee and 10% added by the employer. The Fund "covers all employers, irrespective of the number of employees between 16 and 55 years of age".
A single payroll run at month end therefore feeds both filings. Do it once, carefully, and the 15th is a check rather than a scramble.
Every month: the close
Not a legal deadline, but the habit that makes every deadline easy. Reconcile cash, mobile money and card takings to sales. Match supplier invoices to payments. Confirm that every employee's gross pay for the month is final. If this is done by the 5th, the returns on the 15th take an hour.
Every quarter: the VAT threshold check
URA's VAT page sets compulsory registration where taxable turnover "exceeds, or is expected to exceed UGX 75,000,000 in any period of three consecutive calendar months", one quarter of "the annual registration threshold of UGX 300,000,000". Application must be made "within 20 days from the end of the period in which the obligation to register arose." Once a quarter, total the last three months of sales and compare. A business that crosses the line and does not register faces, in URA's words, "double the amount of tax payable" for the period it should have been registered.
Every year: the income tax return
URA's returns page says annual income tax returns are due "within six (6) months from the end of the financial period", and gives the example that for taxpayers with a 30 June accounting date "the deadline to file returns is 31st December every year." The page lists the late filing penalty as "Ugx. 200,000 or 2% of the tax liability for the period whichever is higher", and notes that an extension "cannot exceed an aggregate of 90 days" and does not move the payment date. Small businesses in the presumptive regime file their return on the same calendar.
Every year: the trading licence in January
Kampala Capital City Authority describes the trading licence as "a Calendar year based tax payable before commencement of business every 1st day of January" which "expires on the 31st of December of the same year." Renewal for an existing business requires the previous year's original licence and KCCA receipt, plus identification. Businesses outside Kampala follow their own local government's schedule, but the calendar-year pattern is common.
The calendar on one page
| When | What | Who says so |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 of each month | Close the books for the previous month | Good practice |
| 15 of each month | PAYE, WHT, VAT (if registered) returns and payment | URA |
| 15 of each month | NSSF contributions, 15% of gross wage | NSSF |
| End of each quarter | Compare three months' sales with UGX 75 million | URA |
| 31 December | Annual income tax return for a June year end | URA |
| January | Renew and display the trading licence | KCCA |
Making it stick
- Put the 15th in every staff member's calendar who touches payroll or sales, not only the owner's.
- Keep one folder, physical or digital, per month, holding the return acknowledgements, the NSSF confirmation and the bank or mobile money proofs.
- Keep a second folder for the year: the licence, the receipt, the annual return.
- When a date is missed, note why. The reason is nearly always "the figures were not ready", and the fix is the monthly close.
Compliance for a small service business is not complicated. It is a handful of dates, the same every month, fed by records that are kept as you trade. Build the record and the calendar takes care of itself.
Sources
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