Uganda moves to tax Netflix in its new digital service tax

Uganda moves to tax Netflix, iTunes in its new digital service tax. Business Detect

Uganda government Ministry of Finance is ready to introduce a new digital service tax in the coming next financial year that will see Ugandans that subscribe to online audio and video content providers to be taxed as away to contribute to Uganda’s economic development.

According to Ministry of Finance officials companies like iTunes , Netflix will be taxed.

Netflix that are fast becoming content providers for many Ugandans.

Moses Kaggwa the Director of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance while speaking at the sidelines of the forum aimed at putting the youth at the forefront of fiscal governance for a better Uganda, said that they would like to work together with these companies to ascertain the revenue collected from Uganda so as to come up with a tax that will see government widen its tax base.

“We can amalgamate or match the transactions that have been done in the country or together with with their value and we tax that base on the gross. We can have a tax linked to gross revenue from Uganda but we need corporation,” Kaggwa said.

Ugandans are currently accessing subscription-based online video and audio content providers like Netflix , HBO, iTunes among others are on the rise.

Uganda government officials insist that despite larger numbers of Ugandans paying large sums of money to outside companies , the government does not charge any tax .

The new proposed tax will see the governmemt take ashare of the tax from these big content providers.

Uganda is not new to these kind of tax , it surprised many when it took a stand to tax social media seeing large numbers of Ugandans resorting to VPN to access social media as away of dodging tax.

Mugeega Nasur an officer at Carreti Media said that this will help government to widen its revenue but still its Ugandans to suffer in their pockets.

Business Detect talked to some Musicians who earn from itunes about the incoming digital tax many were disappointed in the suggestion.

Business Detect