Government will continue seeking parliamentary approval to access individual bank accounts for tax enforcement purposes, State Minister for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Planning) Amos Lugoloobi has said.
Lugoloobi made the remarks while presenting a statement to Parliament on the ongoing transition from Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) to National Identification Numbers (NINs) for individual taxpayers.
He said the proposed access to bank account information forms part of broader government efforts to strengthen tax compliance but emphasised that linking a taxpayer’s TIN to their NIN does not automatically grant the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) access to their bank accounts.
“You have since refused to accept that, but we shall continue coming until you allow us access to your individual bank accounts,” Lugoloobi told Parliament.
He clarified that the Government would require separate legal authorisation from Parliament before accessing individual bank account information for tax purposes.
The minister’s remarks come amid concerns about the implications of replacing TINs with NINs, with some taxpayers fearing that the new system could give URA greater access to their personal financial information.
However, Lugoloobi said the transition should not be interpreted as automatically creating a tax liability for individuals.
“The NIN identifies the person. The tax law determines whether that person has a tax obligation and how much tax, if any, is payable,” he said.
The transition follows a 2025 amendment to the Tax Procedures Code Act, which provides for the use of NINs as tax identification numbers for individual taxpayers.
According to Lugoloobi, URA had approximately 5.7 million taxpayers on its register as of June 30, 2026, including about 5.4 million individuals. Of these, approximately 3.3 million were estimated to be active, while 2.1 million records were inactive or difficult to trace.
He said maintaining separate identification systems for national identification and tax administration had contributed to duplication and inconsistencies in taxpayer records.
During the 2025/26 financial year, URA identified 191,813 duplicate records and 51,993 mutations in its taxpayer register.
As of September 30, 2026, the authority had mapped 2,130,814 NINs to TINs out of 5,405,148 individual taxpayers, representing approximately 39.4 per cent of the register.
Lugoloobi said the transition was being implemented in phases, beginning with mapping existing TINs to NINs, followed by biometric verification and the updating of taxpayer profiles before the full transition to NIN-based taxpayer login.
During the transition period, verified taxpayers will be able to access their tax accounts using either their TIN or NIN.
The minister said the reform aims to establish a “one person, one identity” system, improve the accuracy of taxpayer records, eliminate duplication and strengthen tax compliance.
He also disclosed that Uganda’s first Automatic Exchange of Information exercise, conducted in September 2025, identified approximately 120,000 offshore financial accounts held by Ugandan tax residents, with a combined reported value of about Shs 7 trillion.
Preliminary analysis uniquely identified approximately 20,000 taxpayers linked to the accounts.
Lugoloobi said the Government would continue implementing the reforms progressively while seeking the necessary legal approvals, including parliamentary authorisation for any proposed access to individual bank accounts for tax enforcement.
