Answer four quick questions about your sector, VAT registration, turnover and customers. You get a clear answer, the exact URA rule behind it, the date it took effect and three next steps.
Short answer: you need EFRIS if you are registered for VAT (the rule since 1 January 2021), or if your business is in one of URA's 12 listed sectors and turns over UGX 10,000,000 a year or more (the rule since 1 July 2025), whether or not you are VAT registered. Anyone else is not required yet, but may choose to use it. Your own answer below.
Four questions. The answer updates as you go. Nothing is sent anywhere and no email is asked for.
Answer the questions aboveYour answer, the rule behind it and three next steps appear here.
This is a guide based on URA notices checked in September 2026, not a ruling. For a ruling on your business, contact URA on 0800 117 000 (toll free), WhatsApp 0772 140 000, or email services@ura.go.ug .
There are only two EFRIS rules that decide who must use it, plus the VAT registration line that can bring a business into the first one. The checker applies them in this order, and every answer links to the rule it used.
A typed turnover is placed in a band like this: under UGX 2,820,000; UGX 2,820,000 up to UGX 9,999,999; UGX 10,000,000 up to and including UGX 300,000,000; and over UGX 300,000,000. The lines follow URA's wording: below UGX 10,000,000 is exempt, so exactly UGX 10,000,000 is not, and VAT registration applies above UGX 300,000,000, not at it.
A restaurant in Kampala takes about UGX 60,000,000 a year, is not registered for VAT and sells mostly to walk-in customers.
Answer: EFRIS is required, and has been since 1 July 2025. As it is not VAT registered, it issues e-receipts rather than e-invoices.
A hardware shop takes about UGX 120,000,000 a year, is not registered for VAT and sells to building firms that are.
Answer: Not required yet (you may still choose to use it). Its business customers can still deduct what they buy, because the deduction rule bites only when the supplier was required to use EFRIS. Registering for VAT, or passing UGX 300,000,000 of taxable turnover, would change the answer.
These are the sectors in URA's notice, word for word and in URA's order. Since 1 July 2025 a business in any of them must use EFRIS whether or not it is VAT registered, unless its annual turnover is below UGX 10,000,000. Checked 19 September 2026. Tap a sector to check a business in it.
Not on the list? A VAT-registered business in any sector must still use EFRIS, and from 1 July 2026 a business with annual taxable turnover over UGX 300,000,000 must register for VAT, which brings EFRIS with it. Everyone else is not required yet.
Every answer above rests on one of these rules. EFRIS itself rests on the Tax Procedures Code Act, which lets URA name, by notice, the taxpayers who must issue e-invoices or e-receipts. Each rule was checked on 19 September 2026, against URA's own pages where they exist and against tax advisers, law firms and news reports where URA's pages had not caught up. Where sources disagreed we say so, and anything we could not confirm is marked as needing confirmation.
All VAT-registered taxpayers must issue e-invoices through EFRIS, whatever their sector or turnover. This became mandatory on 1 January 2021, after the original start date of 1 July 2020 was pushed back. The 2025 sector list was added on top of this rule.
Since 1 July 2025, businesses in the 12 sectors named by URA must issue e-invoices or e-receipts through EFRIS whether or not they are registered for VAT. URA first announced this in July 2025. The notice on URA's website now carries the date 10 August 2026, which is why some August 2026 news reports called it new. It is not new: it has applied since 1 July 2025.
A business in one of the 12 sectors with annual turnover below UGX 10,000,000 does not have to issue e-invoices or e-receipts through EFRIS, though it may do so voluntarily. This applies to hotels and restaurants in the same way as every other listed sector. It does not help a VAT-registered business, which must use EFRIS whatever its turnover.
Landlords earning rental income below UGX 2,820,000 a year are not required to issue EFRIS e-receipts. URA's notice states this line separately from the UGX 10,000,000 line, so a landlord between the two lines should ask URA which one applies.
Passenger land transport operators, such as taxis, boda-bodas, shuttles and buses, are excluded from the transportation and storage sector. Non-resident digital service providers that pay digital service tax are excluded from the information technology and communication sector.
From 1 July 2026 a business must register for VAT when its annual taxable turnover is over UGX 300,000,000. Until 30 June 2026 the line was UGX 150,000,000 a year, or UGX 37,500,000 in three consecutive months, and URA's own VAT pages still showed those older figures when we checked. Registering for VAT brings the EFRIS duty with it. To work out the VAT inside a price, use our VAT calculator for Uganda.
Needs confirmation. Under the old rule a business also had to register once its taxable turnover passed UGX 37,500,000 in three consecutive months. We found no source that states the three-month figure that goes with the new UGX 300,000,000 line, so this checker uses the yearly line only. If your sales come in large bursts, ask URA.
From 1 July 2026, VAT-registered businesses below the new threshold may apply online through the URA portal to deregister, subject to URA reviewing their records. Deregistering ends monthly VAT returns but also the right to claim input VAT. It does not end EFRIS for a business in one of the 12 sectors turning over UGX 10,000,000 or more: that business issues e-receipts instead of e-invoices.
From 1 July 2026, a business that is required to use EFRIS but does not, or does not issue an e-invoice or e-receipt, or tampers with a fiscal device, pays a penal tax of double the tax due or UGX 200,000 (10 currency points of UGX 20,000), whichever is higher. Older figures of UGX 6,000,000 and UGX 8,000,000, still found online and in URA's older EFRIS brochure, are out of date.
A business cannot claim an income tax deduction for an expense that is not backed by an EFRIS e-invoice or e-receipt when the supplier was required to use EFRIS (Income Tax Act, section 22(3)(m)). In practice it covers purchases from VAT-registered suppliers and, since 1 July 2025, from suppliers in the 12 sectors.
When a sale is for business purposes, the e-invoice or e-receipt should carry the buyer's Business Registration Number (BRN), National Identification Number (NIN) or TIN.
URA uses two names. A VAT-registered taxpayer issues e-invoices through EFRIS; a taxpayer that is not registered for VAT issues e-receipts. Each one carries a Fiscal Document Number (FDN), a verification code and a QR code.
This page explains the rules; it is not tax or legal advice. For a ruling on your own business, contact URA on 0800 117 000 (toll free) or WhatsApp 0772 140 000, or ask your accountant.
Growth Informer Business is our own live cloud POS, stock and business platform: sales, stock, purchases, expenses and more than one branch, and it runs on a phone. It issues URA EFRIS e-receipts and e-invoices today. EFRIS is a setting: leave it off while you are not required, and switch it on when URA requires it, or earlier if you choose, without moving to a new system. For restaurants and hotels it also handles kitchen orders, tables, rooms and bookings. We can show it working before you commit.
Already run a POS, ERP or accounting system, or planning a custom build? We connect other systems to URA EFRIS by scoping each connection against URA's published specification and confirming feasibility before we quote. For that work you get a fixed quote before work starts, pay on a 50/25/25 plan, and own the source code and your data. Our 37 live website and app builds are on the portfolio page.
Whichever system you use, ours included, meeting URA's fiscal rules remains your business's own obligation.
Two groups. Every VAT-registered taxpayer has had to issue e-invoices through EFRIS since 1 January 2021, whatever its sector or turnover. Since 1 July 2025, businesses in 12 sectors named by URA, including manufacturing, construction, hotels and restaurants, real estate and professional services, must also issue e-invoices or e-receipts through EFRIS whether or not they are registered for VAT, unless their annual turnover is below UGX 10,000,000.
For the 12 listed sectors, yes: a business with annual turnover below UGX 10,000,000 does not have to use EFRIS, though it may choose to. Landlords with rental income below UGX 2,820,000 a year are also not required. There is no turnover threshold for VAT-registered taxpayers, who must use EFRIS whatever they turn over. Separately, from 1 July 2026 a business must register for VAT once its annual taxable turnover is over UGX 300,000,000, and registering brings EFRIS with it.
Yes, if their annual turnover is UGX 10,000,000 or more. Accommodation and Food Service Activities is one of the 12 sectors URA listed from 1 July 2025, and the rule applies whether or not the business is registered for VAT. The UGX 10,000,000 exemption applies to hotels and restaurants in the same way as every other listed sector, so the rule is regardless of VAT status, not regardless of turnover.
From 1 July 2026, a business that is required to use EFRIS but does not, or does not issue an e-invoice or e-receipt, or tampers with a fiscal device, pays a penal tax of double the tax due or UGX 200,000, whichever is higher. Older figures of UGX 6,000,000 or UGX 8,000,000 still found online are out of date. Separately, a business buyer cannot claim an income tax deduction for a purchase with no EFRIS e-invoice or e-receipt when the supplier was required to issue one.
No. URA says EFRIS is not a new tax; it is a way of recording sales. URA offers its web portal and desktop application to businesses that cannot afford an electronic fiscal device or their own system, and we found no URA fee for using them. A business pays for a fiscal device, or for connecting its own POS or accounting system to EFRIS, if it chooses one of those routes.
Tell us what you sell, how many branches you run and how you issue receipts now. We will show you Growth Informer Business issuing EFRIS e-receipts, or scope a connection for the system you already use and give you a fixed quote before any work starts.
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