The Commissioner General of URA, John Musinguzi, has expressed dissatisfaction with the low collections of taxes from rental incomes despite a booming real estate industry.

Musinguzi said only sh120b was collected as taxes accruing from rental income, yet the current expansion of the real estate industry is suggestive of more money expected from the sector.

 “It is unbelievable, and a solution must immediately be found to address this issue," said Musinguzi.

 This is an indication that this is one of the areas that the URA will be keenly looking at to increase tax revenues for the national coffers.

Musinguzi expressed his dissatisfaction with the paltry taxes from the rental incomes during a meeting with the big taxpayers.

Musinguzi’s concerns followed directives by the minister of finance to URA to expand the tax base to ease the burden on the few compliant taxpayers.

 Currently, there are only 800 taxpayers under the category of large taxpayers contributing an average of 5.7 trillion annually. The rest are small taxpayers while others do not pay taxes apart from the indirect taxes that everybody pays.

 Musinguzi said that he has reports of corrupt practices where bribery takes place in order to negotiate for inordinate taxes.

 “Those corrupt practices by those who solicit bribes to negotiate tax matters will not be tolerated,” Musinguzi warned.