{"id":29473,"date":"2026-07-22T03:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T06:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=29473"},"modified":"2026-07-23T06:49:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:49:42","slug":"ugandan-finance-minister-supports-musevenis-push-to-review-tax-on-casino-winnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/ugandan-finance-minister-supports-musevenis-push-to-review-tax-on-casino-winnings","title":{"rendered":"Ugandan finance minister supports Museveni\u2019s push to review tax on casino winnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to the minister, exempting winnings from land-based casinos while maintaining the tax on online casino winnings would create unequal treatment for the same gambling activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Uganda.- Uganda\u2019s minister of finance, planning and economic development, Henry Musasizi<\/strong>, has defended President Yoweri Museveni\u2019s objection<\/a> to exempting land-based casino winnings from a 15 per cent withholding tax, saying equal tax treatment for land-based and online casinos would prevent tax avoidance and revenue leakage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musasizi made the remarks while appearing before Parliament\u2019s Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development on July 16 to explain the President\u2019s decision to return the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026<\/strong> for reconsideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the minister, exempting winnings from land-based casinos while maintaining the tax on online casino winnings would create unequal treatment for the same gambling activity and encourage taxpayers to restructure their operations to benefit from the exemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said applying the same withholding tax to both land-based and online casino winnings would preserve tax fairness and help the government achieve its projected UGX65bn (\u20ac15.3m) in revenue for the 2026\/27 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Museveni returned the Bill to Parliament without assent in a letter dated July 10, arguing that removing the withholding tax on land-based casino winnings would create opportunities for revenue leakage. He instead proposed extending the existing 15 per cent withholding tax on online casino winnings to winnings from land-based casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parliament had passed the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill in April 2026 ahead of the start of the new financial year, but lawmakers must now reconsider the proposed exemption in line with the President\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Ugandan president returns betting tax bill over casino exemption clause<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the minister, exempting winnings from land-based casinos while maintaining the tax on online casino winnings would create unequal treatment for the same gambling activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":20654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Uganda's Minister of Finance, Henry Musasizi, has defended President Yoweri Museveni's objection to exempting land-based casino winnings from a 15% withholding tax. The President advocates for equal tax treatment across land-based and online casino winnings to prevent tax avoidance and ensure revenue collection, impacting the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2026.","focusai_entities":"Henry Musasizi, Yoweri Museveni, Parliament\u2019s Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Parliament","focusai_location":"Uganda","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Tax Bill Reconsideration Impact","query":"What are the projected financial implications for both land-based and online casino operators in Uganda if the 15% withholding tax is uniformly applied to all winnings, and how might this affect market growth and investment?"},{"label":"Regulatory Parity Outlook","query":"How does the President's insistence on equal tax treatment for land-based and online casino winnings align with broader regulatory compliance and governance frameworks for gaming verticals in Uganda?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60013,60020],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-29473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-legislation-news","tag-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29473"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29592,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29473\/revisions\/29592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}