EFRIS and VAT in Uganda: who must use EFRIS, when to register for VAT, and how to keep both right
EFRIS is URA's system for issuing e-invoices and e-receipts. Every VAT-registered business must use it, and since July 2025 so must businesses in 12 more sectors. VAT registration is required once turnover passes UGX 300 million a year. We set you up, clean up past errors and keep your VAT returns matching EFRIS.
What are EFRIS and VAT?
VAT (value added tax) is charged at 18% on most goods and services. A VAT-registered business adds it to its sales, takes off the VAT it paid on its own purchases, and pays the difference to URA every month.
EFRIS (the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution) is how URA sees those sales as they happen. Each sale gets an e-invoice or e-receipt through URA's system. Your VAT return, your EFRIS records and your books then have to tell the same story, because URA compares them.
VAT and EFRIS in five facts
- 18% is the standard VAT rate.
- UGX 300 million a year is the VAT registration threshold from 1 July 2026 (it was UGX 150 million).
- The 15th: the VAT return and payment are due by the 15th of the following month.
- No e-invoice, no deduction: an expense isn't allowed for income tax if your supplier should use EFRIS and didn't give you an e-invoice or e-receipt.
- Less withholding: from July 2026, a buyer who gets an EFRIS e-invoice no longer withholds VAT on that payment.
Sources: URA EFRIS notices; VAT (Amendment) Act 2026. Checked October 2026.
Who must use EFRIS
Every VAT-registered business
Whatever you sell, once you're registered for VAT you issue e-invoices or e-receipts through EFRIS.
12 more sectors, since July 2025
Manufacturing; mining and quarrying; water, sewerage and waste; electricity and gas; construction; transport and storage; accommodation and food; IT and communication; real estate; professional, scientific and technical; arts and entertainment; fuel sales.
Not required
Businesses earning under UGX 10 million a year, landlords with rent under UGX 2,820,000 a year, passenger land transport such as taxis and boda-bodas, and non-resident digital service providers.
Your buyers care too
Business customers need your e-invoice to claim their VAT and their expense, so EFRIS affects whether they keep buying from you.
Source: URA, additional taxpayers required to use EFRIS.
Where you stand decides what you need
Not VAT-registered yet
Check whether your sector must use EFRIS anyway. Watch your turnover: once it's likely to pass UGX 300 million a year, registration is required. Registering voluntarily can make sense if your customers are VAT-registered and want to claim the VAT.
VAT-registered
Every sale goes through EFRIS. Your products must be set up under the right codes, credit notes issued properly, and your monthly VAT return has to match what EFRIS shows, sale by sale.
Where EFRIS and VAT go wrong
- Products set up under the wrong codes or VAT rates
- Sales made but no e-invoice issued at the time
- Credit notes not issued, or not approved
- Stock on EFRIS that doesn't match the shelves
- VAT returns that don't match EFRIS
- Buying from suppliers who aren't on EFRIS, so the expense and the VAT are lost
The cost of waiting: URA sees your EFRIS figures without asking. Penalties for not issuing e-invoices can be heavy, and differences with your VAT return lead to assessments and a blocked TCC.
We set it up right, fix the past and keep it matched
We diagnose
A paid diagnostic (from UGX 300,000) matches EFRIS to your books and stock and shows exactly what's wrong: setup, history, or both.
We set up or fix
Products coded correctly, credit notes and errors corrected, your system linked to EFRIS if you need it.
We keep it matched
Every month, your VAT return is filed to match EFRIS and your books.
- A written diagnostic of your EFRIS and VAT position
- EFRIS set up, or corrected
- VAT returns filed by the 15th, matching EFRIS
- Simple checks so errors don't come back
- Your TIN and EFRIS login details shared safely, or view access
- Your product or service list
- Recent sales and purchase records, and any URA letters
Priced to your situation — not a rate card
Scoped by the state of your system and history — diagnosed first, quoted in writing.
Licensed Tax Agent, registered with TARC under URA · Helping clients since 2012 · Rated 4.7 on Google
EFRIS and VAT questions, by situation
Jump to: Getting started · Your business · Problems · Working with us
Getting started
URA's Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution. Businesses that must use it issue every invoice or receipt through it, so URA sees each sale.
Every VAT-registered business, plus, since 1 July 2025, businesses in 12 more sectors including manufacturing, construction, transport and storage, accommodation and food, real estate and professional services.
When your taxable turnover is more than UGX 300 million a year, or is likely to be. That threshold applies from 1 July 2026; before that it was UGX 150 million.
The standard rate is 18%. Some supplies are zero-rated or exempt; we check which apply to you.
Four ways: on the URA web portal, through URA's desktop app, on a fiscal device (EFD) bought from a URA-approved supplier, or from your own accounting or POS system linked to EFRIS. The portal and the app cost nothing to use. A system link suits businesses with many sales a day.
By the 15th of the following month, with the payment, every month, even when there's nothing to declare.
Your business
You don't have to use EFRIS. Keep an eye on your sector and turnover as you grow.
You still have to use EFRIS for your sales. We register you on EFRIS and set it up.
If they should be, you can't deduct those expenses for income tax without their e-invoice or e-receipt, and you can't claim their VAT. Ask them for EFRIS invoices, or consider suppliers who issue them.
Sometimes. If your customers are VAT-registered businesses, being registered lets them claim the VAT you charge and lets you claim VAT on your own purchases. We work out whether it pays for you.
Yes. URA's list has about 148,000 product and service codes, and each one carries its own VAT treatment: standard-rated, zero-rated or exempt. Pick the wrong code, or the wrong unit (rent measured in kilograms, for example), and every invoice for that item carries the wrong VAT. So does the VAT return URA pre-fills from EFRIS.
Deemed-VAT and VAT-exempt projects are now activated and applied for inside EFRIS. We prepare the application, write to the right URA office and follow it up, so the project's invoices carry the right VAT treatment.
Export invoices on EFRIS need the HS code, the delivery terms and the customs entry for the goods, and some goods also need customs units of measure. A wrong HS code causes problems at customs too; see Customs & HS Classification.
Problems
That's one of the most common causes of URA queries and blocked TCCs. We reconcile them month by month and correct the returns or the EFRIS records.
An EFRIS invoice can't be edited. You raise a credit note that refers to the original. A business buyer approves it in EFRIS, and URA approves it where the buyer has no TIN. Until it's approved, it doesn't count. With many invoices, the follow-up takes time, which is why fixing past errors is priced by the number of credit notes.
Send us the letter. We find what caused it, fix the records and, where there are grounds, respond to URA before the deadline.
EFRIS won't let you invoice goods until stock is entered for that branch: imports against the customs entry, local purchases, production or opening stock. When purchases or adjustments aren't recorded, EFRIS shows stock you don't have, or blocks sales of stock you do. We correct the setup and the stock records.
EFRIS shows your stock as it is today, not on a past date. Year-end stock has to be rebuilt from today's figure by reversing every sale, purchase and adjustment since then. Our diagnostic does this and compares the result with your books.
Tell URA in writing, on its form, before you destroy anything. Since July 2024, without that notice you lose the tax deduction and the VAT credit. Slow-moving stock can be written down to its market value at year end. Then record the write-off in EFRIS as a stock adjustment, or EFRIS keeps showing stock you no longer have.
Refunds are checked closely. We make sure your claim and EFRIS records support it, then follow it up with URA.
Working with us
Every job starts with the paid diagnostic, from UGX 300,000, credited against the work if you go ahead within 30 days. Setup is priced by your products, stock, branches, devices and any special sales. Fixing past errors is priced by the months, credit notes and products affected, and monthly VAT filing by your sales and invoice volume. You get a written quote before any work starts.
Yes, working with your developer or an accredited EFRIS integrator. We don't write your software. We handle the URA side: the digital certificate and device registration, mapping your products to URA's codes, testing with URA and sign-off. Your integrator's fee is quoted separately and invoiced to you directly.
Yes. VAT filing is part of our monthly filing service, priced by your sales and invoices.
Related reading: EFRIS penalties explained — and the five habits that prevent them · The net is tightening: what URA already sees about your business
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