Uganda VAT standard rate
Uganda VAT standard rate is 18 percent, in force since 1 Jul 2005, cited to Value Added Tax (Rate of Tax) Order, 2006 (SI 2006 No. 29), para 3. It was 17 percent before that. Last checked against the official source on 7 Aug 2026.
Official source: Value Added Tax (Rate of Tax) Order, 2006 (SI 2006 No. 29), para 3 · Last checked 2026-08-07 · source fingerprint
Standard value-added tax rate.
| Current value | 18 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2005-07-01 |
| Official source | Value Added Tax (Rate of Tax) Order, 2006 (SI 2006 No. 29), para 3 — 'the rate of tax for (a) every taxable supply... (b) every import... (c) ...imported services, is 18% of the taxable value' — made under s. 78 VAT Act (Cap. 349), Statutory Instruments Supplement No. 16 to Uganda Gazette No. 39 Vol. XCVIX of 30 June 2006, deemed in force 1 July 2005 |
| Last verified | 2026-08-07 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Stable for 21 years (raised from the original 17% of 1996). The VAT (Amendment) Act 2026 (effective 1 July 2026) changed exemption/zero-rating schedules and doubled the registration threshold to UGX 300m annual turnover, but did not touch the 18% rate. Rate changes, if any, come via annual Tax Amendment Acts effective 1 July. CITATION CORRECTED (2026-08-07): the previous citation named the VAT (Rate of Tax) Order 2005 (SI 51/2005) but linked a URA agro-processing sector page that merely mentions the rate. The 2005 Order is real — the Uganda Gazette of 8 June 2005 lists it in its contents — but its SI supplement text is not in any online gazette copy, so it is unverifiable; the operative, verifiable instrument is the 2006 Order (SI 29/2006), which re-prescribed 18% with retroactive commencement 1 July 2005 (hence effective_from is unchanged). Later chain checked in the gazettes: SI 21/2007 was a special 5% residential-dwellings rate, revoked by SI 30/2009; no general-rate order since. ACCESS: ulii.org sits behind a Cloudflare JS challenge (403 to non-browser fetches; a real browser passes) — the Order was read in a browser session, and the surrounding gazettes are freely fetchable from archive.gazettes.africa. Do NOT cite ULII's consolidated VAT Act for the rate: it is the 31.12.2000 revision with unapplied amendments.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1996-07-01 | 17 | VAT introduction rate (Economic Policy Research Centre VAT… |
Get it programmatically
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Other Uganda series: Bank of Uganda central bank rate · VAT registration threshold · National minimum wage (statutory, archaic) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Statutory late-payment interest · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions · Tax filing deadlines
The same figure elsewhere: Zambia · Algeria · Angola · Benin · Botswana · all 34