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Showing posts with the label Taxes

Why it is important to define Tax justice as a human rights issue

On the 10th December 2018, Uganda celebrated the 70th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights, a commitment that gave birth to the human rights movement. Uganda is a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESR), the International Covenant on Political and Civil rights and the International covenant on the Rights of a child, the African charter on human and people’s rights, African Charter on the rights and welfare of the child, among others and has a bill of rights in its constitution to guarantee these rights. Almost all these treaties and constitution impose an obligation on the state to ‘undertake measures’ for the implementation of these rights, Al Since 1948, a lot of progress has been made on many a fronts (like creation of Human Rights Bodies(Human Rights Commission, Equal opportunities Commission, etc), Courts, watch dogs, etc) when it comes to attainment and enjoyment of these human rights. However, a...

I paid my Tax. Where are the services?

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It’s a bright morning and we are headed to a meeting on another thorny issue, well not thorny yet – Taxation! Part taking to this meeting are Local Council IIs and IIIs as well as various office holders within the Sub County, generally tax payers. We are in Ivukula sub-county. I have been in larger Namutumba for a while now and as such, the slow start and lazy walk-ins and a seldom busy registration desk are not new since I know that before long, the hall will be full to capacity.  Poor governance is the key cause of poverty. Global citizens suffer when governments do not provide requisite services for dignified livelihood. Serious problems with governance still exist in much of Africa – but the overall situation is steadily improving. Working with governments to improve the way public resources are used is an important part of Action Aid’s intervention strategies. The issue of TAX remission is age old, but many of us seldom interact to discuss it. Many more hardly ever ...