URSB company compliance in Uganda: annual returns, beneficial owners and company changes, filed right

A yearly filing that confirms or updates your company's details on the register: registered office, directors and shareholders, with financial statements for some companies.

Within 42 days after the company's annual general meeting.

The real person who ultimately owns or controls the company, even if the shares are held through someone else or another company. Every company must declare them to URSB.

Default fines of UGX 500,000 for the company and its officers, no new registrations until beneficial owners are filed, and strike-off after five years without returns.

It still files annual returns. Dormant companies that stop filing are the ones most often struck off.

The change must be filed with URSB. Until it is, the old record stands, and the departed director may still be treated as responsible.

The transfer must be documented and filed, and the beneficial owners updated. There may be tax on the sale too, so check before you sign.

It can usually be restored by petition, which can involve penalties. Updating the company's records is part of it, from UGX 500,000; we quote the petition once we see the file.

Banks increasingly ask for certified annual returns and a beneficiary form before opening or reviewing accounts. We get certified copies from URSB and complete the form for UGX 730,000, plus URSB's own fees.

Yes, start to finish: name search and reservation, the memorandum and articles of association, registration with URSB and beneficial owners. From UGX 1,500,000. Your written quote sets out everything before we start.

First, find out which route applies. A company that never traded and owns nothing can be struck off after a special resolution and public notices. A company that has traded and can pay its debts goes through a members' voluntary winding up with a licensed liquidator. One that can't pay its debts goes through the Insolvency Act.

A company that never traded usually takes 4–9 months: notices, the CPA's sign-off, the Registrar's 30-day notice, then strike-off. A winding up with a liquidator usually takes 9–18 months.

For a company that never traded, our fee is UGX 3,000,000. Third parties (CPA, advocate, Gazette, newspaper and URSB) come to about UGX 3.1M–5.6M. For a members' voluntary winding up, our fee is from UGX 3,500,000, and the liquidator, advocates and CPA usually come to UGX 13M–25M. Third parties invoice the company directly, at cost.

Only a Certified Public Accountant's sign-off is accepted now. CPAs price it on what they have to review: from about UGX 1,000,000 with no bank account, more with bank statements or assets.

Yes. Removing the company from the register does not close its TIN. Final returns are filed and the TIN is closed separately, and that's part of our fee.

One year's annual return is UGX 400,000; a company several years behind is brought up to date from UGX 850,000. Managed annual compliance is UGX 1,400,000 a year, bank documents and beneficial ownership registration UGX 730,000 each, and updating your records UGX 500,000. URSB's fees are extra, at cost.

Yes, as a separate service. URSB and URA are different authorities, so each is quoted on its own. A TCC depends on your URA file, not your URSB filings. See the TCC estimate.

No. URSB's own fees and any legal document fees are paid separately, at cost, and shown on your quote. Our fee covers the work.

Scanned national IDs of the directors and secretary, the certificate of incorporation, the memorandum and articles of association, and the directors' and secretary's emails and phone numbers.