First private tax school opens

May 03, 2009

THE East African School of Taxation, the first in the region, was launched early this year. <b>Lydia Lakwonyero</b>, talked to <b>George Akena</b>, the founder, on how the school will change people’s poor attitude towards paying taxes.

THE East African School of Taxation, the first in the region, was launched early this year. Lydia Lakwonyero, talked to George Akena, the founder, on how the school will change people’s poor attitude towards paying taxes.

What is East African School of Taxation all about?
It is a tertiary institution that offers diploma courses in income tax and revenue administration, certificates of merit in taxation and tailor-made courses in taxation for parastatals, the private sector, local governments and small and medium enterprises.

We also offer training in facilitating tax planning processes, salary and benefits tax consultancy, and tax management systems and tax audits.

How did you come up with the idea of the institute?

When I was a lecturer of tax law at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) training school, I was approached by many lawyers, who had been denied entry at the school because the URA course was exclusively for its staff.
They wanted me to start a similar school to help them.
That is when I realised that there was no school in Uganda offering practical tax training to the public and private sectors.

I was also inspired by the study I did on tax disputes that were handled by the Tax Appeal Tribunal.
I found out that most of the disputes were caused by consultants’ incompetence to interpret tax laws, accountancy principles and standards.

How is this going to change?

We are offering practical tax training. We give our trainees a hands-on experience with emphasis on how to help clients settle their tax problems. We want to bring professionalism in tax consultancy.

Who is your target group?

We target lawyers, chartered and certified accountants, economists, statisticians and graduates of any business-related courses.

How will this initiative benefit the business community?

We intend to help our students and the business community have an in-depth understanding, knowledge and authoritative interpretation of the tax laws.

We want them to acquire skills and practical experience in filling all income tax and value added tax (VAT) returns and give them tax planning techniques to ably adjudicate tax appeal cases before the Tax Appeals Tribunal. They will also be recognised by URA and the Tax Appeal Tribunal as tax consultants.

They will have an integrated approach to tax practice as a result of combining financial accounting and tax laws.
They will participate in continued professional development programmes, which will be organised by the institute annually.

How will the ordinary businessperson benefit?

We intend to develop customised tax programmes for the various sectors in the country.

At the moment, we are looking for funding to offer free tax education to all Ugandans.

We plan to train 300 tax educators to educate the people about the importance of paying tax and the various taxes that they should pay.
Also, the cost of tax consultancy will be reduced, specifically for the ordinary businessman.

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