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An auditor, who also serves as a tax agent for Nessy Shoppers Ltd, has been charged with evading taxes totaling shillings 148 million.

Joseph Dickson Muzaale, 29, a resident of Nsambwe in Mukono municipality, was on March 28, 2024, charged at the Nakasero-based Anti-Corruption Court before Grade One Magistrate Esther Asiimwe with 16 counts of making false statements to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).

The prosecution, led by Stuart Aheebwa, the in-charge of supervision litigation, alleges that Muzaale, on September 14, 2022, at Makindye in Kampala city, as a tax agent of Nessy Shoppers Ltd, filed fake value-added tax monthly returns for August 2022 to URA, claiming to have sold goods to several companies whereas not. 

According to the prosecution, the tax evasion led to a loss of shillings 148 million

It is further alleged that on November 8, 2022, at Makindye in Kampala city, Muzaale filed yet another value-added tax return to URA, purporting that, Nessy Shoppers Limited sold goods worth shillings 176 million to Altron and Kembabazi Catering Centre, whereas they did not.

He also claimed that Nessy Shoppers Limited sold goods to other companies, including D Cleaners Limited, Blue Bubble Products Limited, and Norema Services Limited. He denied the charges and was remanded until April 2, 2024, when he will return to court for a bail application.

Magistrate Asiimwe informed the accused that she was unable to hear his bail application.

What the law says

The offence of making false statements to a tax officer under section 58(1)(a) of the Tax Procedures Act elicits 10 years in jail or a fine of shillings 110 million on conviction.