The short answer
If you live in Uganda, your remote pay counts, even when the payer is abroad. The Income Tax Act says "the gross income of a resident person includes income derived from all geographical sources" (section 17). And if you've left foreign income from 2024 or 2025 undeclared, URA is offering a full waiver of penalties and interest until 30 June 2027.
This guide is general information, not tax advice. We read the Income Tax Act as consolidated on 23 December 2024. A 2026 amendment Act also exists, and we couldn't open its text, so a part of this may have changed. Check with URA before you rely on any one line.
The deadline: 30 June 2027
On 7 September 2026, URA published that its voluntary disclosure programme is "extended to the period July 01, 2026 to June 30, 2027". It covers "undeclared or under-declared foreign income earned in 2024 and 2025".
What URA lists as the benefits:
- "Full waiver of penalties and interest on taxes declared and paid under the Program"
- no compliance review of those amounts
- immunity from prosecution for tax offences arising from what you disclose, subject to the tax laws
- the option to pay in instalments
You still pay the tax itself. The relief only works if you disclose before URA finds the income or starts an audit. URA also says it "continues to receive information on foreign financial accounts, income and assets held abroad". So waiting has a cost. The form is on the URA portal, and you may also need to amend your returns. URA's toll-free lines are 0800 117000 and 0800 217000.
Are you a resident?
Section 9 of the Act makes you resident if any one of these applies:
- you have a permanent home in Uganda
- you're in Uganda for 183 days or more in a 12 month period
- you're in Uganda for more than 122 days on average over the year and the two years before
- you're Government of Uganda staff posted abroad
Most people who live in Kampala and work from home meet the first test. There's one exception to know about. A short-term resident, meaning a non-citizen present for two years or less, has foreign-source income listed as exempt in section 21.
Foreign source or Ugandan source?
This question matters more than it looks, and many people get it wrong. You might think pay from a London company is foreign income. But section 78(d)(i) says income from Ugandan sources includes employment income or a service fee "derived from employment or services exercised or rendered in Uganda".
Read plainly, if you sit in Uganda and do the work there, the words point to Ugandan source income, even though the money comes from abroad. We didn't find a URA ruling on remote work, so we're only telling you what the words say. Ask URA about your own case.
It matters because of the exemption people hear about. Section 79(1) says: "Foreign source employment income derived by a resident individual is exempt from tax if the individual has paid foreign income tax in respect of the income." Section 79(2) treats it as paid if your employer withheld it and paid it to the foreign tax body. So this exemption needs foreign tax to have really been paid, and it needs the income to be foreign source. A contract that pays you gross, with no tax taken anywhere, doesn't get you there.
Where you did pay foreign tax, section 80 gives a foreign tax credit, capped at the Ugandan tax on that income. URA has a page on this too.
How you pay when nobody withholds
A Ugandan employer takes PAYE from your salary. A foreign payer usually doesn't. Section 121 covers income with no withholding through provisional tax, and section 121(4) sets "four instalments of provisional tax, on or before the last day of the third, sixth, ninth and twelfth months" of your tax year.
So you estimate, pay in four parts and square up on your return. You'll need a TIN first. URA has an individual TIN application on its site, and we link to it below.
The rates, and one example
URA gives these monthly bands from 1 July 2026 for employment pay. Other rules may apply to business income, so check which one fits you.
| Chargeable income a month (UGX) | Tax |
|---|---|
| Up to 335,000 | Nil |
| 335,000 to 410,000 | 20% of the amount above 335,000 |
| 410,000 to 485,000 | 15,000 plus 25% of the amount above 410,000 |
| 485,000 to 10,000,000 | 33,750 plus 30% of the amount above 485,000 |
| Above 10,000,000 | As above, plus 10% on what's above 10,000,000 |
URA's own example, on its employment income page: chargeable income of 1,000,000 a month pays 188,250. That's 33,750 plus 30% of 515,000.
If you're paid in dollars, use the USD salary calculator to get the shilling figure first. It uses the rate you type, because we don't store any rate.
What to do this week
- Work out what you earned in 2024 and 2025, and whether you declared it.
- Get or find your TIN.
- If something wasn't declared, read URA's disclosure page and decide before 30 June 2027. Talk to a tax adviser if the sums are large.
- For this year, set aside money from each payment, so that the instalments are there when they're due.
- Keep your contract, invoices, bank statements and any proof of tax paid abroad.
Read getting paid from abroad for how the money reaches you, and see remote jobs open to people in Uganda. We list 20 roles that name Uganda, and who posts them.