Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Portal: Features and Impact

Nov 16, 2025 0

The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has been actively implementing various technological solutions to enhance tax administration and compliance. Among these initiatives is the URA portal, which offers a range of features designed to improve transparency, efficiency, and convenience for taxpayers.

Let's explore the key features of the URA portal and their impact on businesses and individuals in Uganda.

Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS)

Many business owners started off the new financial year (2020-2021) in panic mode when they were informed of the requirement to implement a new electronic invoicing system named EFRIS. Without prior training, the system was a mystery. While business owners were worried about the implications of using the EFRIS, they were not sure of its impact on their specific business operations.

EFRIS (Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution), introduced by URA (Uganda Revenue Authority), is a framework that makes use of EFDs and ERP systems to authorise the generation of e-invoices and e-receipts. ACEteK is a URA accredited software Integrator for SAP Business One and EFRIS. We have studied the EFRIS platform and built expertise in integrating, SAP Business One ERP system to EFRIS as per the requirements detailed on the URA EFRIS Portal.

According to URA however, EFRIS is meant to improve business efficiencies and reduce the cost of compliance through improved record keeping among taxpayers and mitigate tax administration shortfalls while promoting compliance efficiency. The intention of the URA is partly to manage challenges such as suppression of sales, non-issuance of tax receipts or invoices, curb false refund claims, fictitious purchases with no physical movement of goods and unverifiable claims by taxpayers due to loss of records.

URA has resolved that all VAT registered companies issue e-invoices or e-receipts for every business supply made (whether exempt or taxable) using the URA EFRIS. And that every VAT credit, refund claim an Income tax deduction or expenditure shall not be granted unless such credit, refund claim, expenditure, or deduction is supported by an e-invoice or e-receipt provided the supplier of the goods or services is required to issue an e-receipt or e-invoice.

URA advises that companies can either manually process invoices and receipts through the URA Web portal - this would mean capturing invoices and receipts twice (both in the company’s accounting system and the URA system) or integrate the company’s accounting system to EFRIS.

EFRIS was introduced to promote transparency of transactions, prevent fraudulent purchases where no actual goods movement occurred, and reduce the occurrence of false refund claims. EFRIS made it easy to match input tax and output tax, which was a major challenge earlier in Uganda.

Steps to Enhance Tax Compliance and Accuracy

Access the URA portal.
Navigate to the EFRIS registration section.
Fill in the required details and submit the registration form.
Obtain API keys from URA.
Configure your business system to connect to the EFRIS API.
Generate the required report.
Review and ensure accuracy.

Accessing API Logs

Navigate to the API logs section in your business system.
Review log entries for error messages.

Challenges and Solutions

Like any other system, EFRIS has not come without challenges. In some cases, the OTP is not sent to the users at all and has to be prompted several times. This is inconveniencing since the EFRIS portal cannot be accessed without the OTP. In addition to this, the OTP expires after a specified period (24 hours) which means the taxpayer has to request another OTP almost every time they log in.

Whilst the OTP is a great security control, most of the contact persons of the URA accounts are not exactly the people charged with the responsibility of generating invoices and credit notes. This access can be set-up to run for months or weeks in the case the owner of the account and the user are not the same. Alternatively, the contact person for the EFRIS should be set up differently from the contact person managing the URA web-portal account so that each of the recognized users can log in under their capacity and personalized credentials without inconveniencing the account owner or compromising the OTP security.

A question worth asking is whether the URA web-portal is perhaps not sufficiently protected or what necessitates the e-invoicing platform to have an extra security feature on its part in the form of the OTP, unlike the URA web-portal.

The e-invoicing system requires that taxpayers identify the products or services they deal in from the URA’s pre-set database, which poses some challenges. Businesses in Uganda today are very innovative and package their services or products to customers in unique ways that may not have been provided for in the URA’s database.

As an example, software sold to clients as a service is configured as a good on the e-invoicing system, thereby requiring information regarding inventory levels which is not applicable. A tribunal to assess the classification inconsistencies should be put in place to address the configuration challenges.

There is no flexibility in choosing which service or product is vatable or not on the side of the taxpayer. For services like hotel accommodation where the VAT rate applicable changes by the location of where the service is offered in Uganda as introduced by the amendment to the Second schedule paragraph 1 c (iii) of the VAT Act Cap 349, it is yet to be understood if the system is suited to such variations.

The public also generally worries about the exposure risk of business information like costing and stock details. The e-invoicing requires detailed information that is usually the only privy to management such as cost allocation. Declaring this information may affect the competitive advantages of businesses in circumstances that it is leaked. This worry in one way or another has affected how the taxpayers receive the developments of the e-invoicing system.

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Additionally, as a matter of suggestion, the e-invoicing system could be set to advise the taxpayers’ suppliers on the invoices/services that qualify for WHT and the applicable rate in the same way it was set-up for VAT.

SESSION 4 - How to issue an e Invoice in EFRIS

Integrated Tax Administration System

In 2008, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) won a transformational engagement from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to design and install an integrated tax administration system. Under the project, a suite of applications would be developed for effecting and monitoring key activities of a tax administration like registration, returns, payments, assessment, tax-payer accounts, audit, compliance, objections, appeals and investigations.

The new system is an integrated solution that will help URA to scrutinize the tax returns more effectively and improve compliance level by having a single and integrated view of the tax payer and provide increased convenience for tax payers. The TCS-developed system incorporates best international practices, security features on a highly secure platform accessible only to select users.

Part of the project encompasses a citizen portal which would act as the interface of the URA with its stakeholders and would ensure 24x7 availability. “The citizen portal would bring the much needed transparency in the tax administration by giving taxpayers online access to all the information pertaining to tax administration.

TCS would be also provide a Human Resource Management System (HRMS), Document Management System (DMS) and Case Tracking System (CTS) as part of the project scope. HRMS would cover all aspects of HR function through the lifecycle of an employee. DMS is intended to create a digitized repository of all the important documents along with an efficient document storage and retrieval.

AskURA Mobile App

AskURA is the official self-service app from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), built to help individuals and businesses access tax services anytime, anywhere.

PAYE (Pay As You Earn) Data Not Linked to You The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity: Location Identifiers

Digital Transformation

The URA portal and its various components represent a significant step towards digital transformation in Uganda's tax administration. By leveraging technology, the URA aims to create a more efficient, transparent, and user-friendly system for taxpayers.