The Uganda Revenue Authority – URA – has arrested an accountant for falsifying invoices worth Shs 50 billion.
The suspect has been identified as Jackson Wabyona Rubanjwa, 40; an accountant and a resident of Lumuli Zone Goma Division in Mukono District.
Rubanjwa was arrested and taken to the Anti-Corruption Court on five (05) 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).
According to Prosecution, during the period January 2018 and June 2021, while filing monthly VAT returns for Sun Mutual Capital Limited, Rubanjwa cleared supplies amounting to UGX. 25,304,417,083 which were fictitiously made to sixty-four (64) persons. This caused a tax loss of UGX. 4,543,325,065 to the Government of Uganda.
Prosecution further alleges that while filing VAT returns for the same client (Sun Mutual Capital Limited) between July 2021 – April 2022; Rubanjwa made fictitious supplies of UGX.24,923,197,428 to 86 persons causing a tax loss of UGX.4,486,175,542.
It is further revealed that between October 2019 and March 2022, while filing monthly VAT returns for Jireh Hardware and Construction (2014) Ltd, Rubanjwa purportedly made false purchases worth UGX. 3,635,734,147 from Sun Mutual Capital Limited which caused tax loss of UGX. 654,432,146 to government of Uganda.
On another count between January 2018 to April 2022; Rubanjwa knowingly and falsely used the TIN of Sun Mutual Capital Limited to generate and issue false supply invoices amounting to UGX. 50,227,614,511 thereby causing a tax loss of UGX. 9,029,500,609 to the Government of Uganda.
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.
The URA has meanwhile advised the public to “Always guard the password of their TINs. Don’t share your TIN’s password with anyone because someone might use your account for dubious transactions and land you into problems; 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; minimize the use of cash transactions/cash payment systems because they don’t leave enough evidence to help explain their business transactions with URA; avoid using fictitious invoices which are not part of the business in their accounts; 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.”
According to the URA, the solution eliminates the risk of physical loss of tax invoices as transactional data or copies are digitally stored in the system.
