VAT calculator Uganda
Add 18 percent VAT to a price, or take the VAT out of a price that already includes it. See the price before VAT, the VAT and the total in UGX, for one amount or an invoice of up to 5 lines.
Short answer: Uganda's standard VAT rate is 18 percent. To add VAT, multiply the price by 1.18. To take VAT out of a price that includes it, multiply by 18/118 for the VAT, or divide by 1.18 for the price before VAT. So UGX 118,000 including VAT is UGX 100,000 plus UGX 18,000 of VAT. Your own figures below.
Work out the VAT
Uses Uganda's standard rate of 18 percent, checked 19 September 2026. Nothing is sent anywhere and no email is asked for. It updates as you type.
How the calculator works
There are only two sums, and both come from the 18 percent rate. Tap a card to run it in the calculator above.
You have a price before VAT
VAT is the price times 18, divided by 100. The total is the price plus the VAT, or the price times 1.18 in one step.
UGX 100,000 before VAT: VAT UGX 18,000, total UGX 118,000.
You have a price including VAT
VAT is the total times 18, divided by 118. The price before VAT is the total minus the VAT, or the total divided by 1.18.
UGX 118,000 including VAT: VAT UGX 18,000, before VAT UGX 100,000.
Why 118? A VAT-inclusive price is made of 100 parts price and 18 parts VAT. So VAT is 18 of every 118 shillings in the total, about 15.25 percent, not 18 percent. That is the whole reason a VAT inclusive calculator needs a different sum from one that adds VAT.
Rounding. Uganda prices are in whole shillings, so the calculator rounds the VAT to the nearest shilling and then works out the other figure from it. The price before VAT plus the VAT always equals the total. On an invoice, each line is rounded on its own and the totals are the sums of the lines.
Worked example
A supplier quotes UGX 2,360,000 including VAT
- VAT = 2,360,000 × 18 ÷ 118 = UGX 360,000
- Price before VAT = 2,360,000 minus 360,000 = UGX 2,000,000
- Check: 2,000,000 × 1.18 = 2,360,000
The usual slip is to take 18 percent of the whole quote. That gives UGX 424,800, which overstates the VAT by UGX 64,800.
One invoice, three kinds of line, prices before VAT
- Standard-rated goods, UGX 500,000: VAT UGX 90,000, total UGX 590,000
- Zero-rated export, UGX 300,000: VAT UGX 0, total UGX 300,000
- Exempt service, UGX 200,000: no VAT, total UGX 200,000
Invoice: UGX 1,000,000 before VAT, UGX 90,000 VAT, UGX 1,090,000 in total. Only the standard-rated line carries VAT.
When the answer changes
- The price already includes VAT. Switch to "A price including VAT". Taking 18 percent of a total always overstates the VAT, by UGX 64,800 on a UGX 2,360,000 quote.
- The sale is zero-rated or exempt. No VAT is added. Mark the line in the invoice table and its VAT drops to zero. The difference between the two is shown in the cards below.
- Your business is not registered for VAT. If it has to use EFRIS, it issues e-receipts rather than e-invoices, and a business that is not registered cannot reclaim input VAT.
- A system rounds differently. This calculator rounds each line to the nearest shilling. A system that rounds once on the invoice total can differ by a shilling or two.
- The rules move. The registration threshold changed on 1 July 2026, and the zero-rated and exempt schedules are amended most years. The dates we checked each rule are listed below.
Standard, zero-rated and exempt supplies
Tap a card to add a line of that kind to the invoice table. The examples come from URA's VAT guide, which dates from January 2022, so treat them as examples, not a complete or current list.
VAT added at 18 percent
The standard rate, and the one the calculator uses unless you mark a line otherwise.
Checked 19 September 2026
VAT at 0 percent
No VAT on the price, but the seller can still claim input VAT. Examples: exports, drugs and medicines made in Uganda, and cereals grown and milled in Uganda.
Checked 19 September 2026
Outside VAT
No VAT is charged. Examples: financial services, education, health and life insurance, social welfare services, passenger transport and petroleum fuels.
Checked 19 September 2026
Uganda VAT rules, and when we checked them
Every rate and rule on this page comes from the sources below. Where sources disagreed, or a figure is not confirmed, it says so. This explains the rules; it is not tax advice, and URA gives rulings.
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Standard VAT rate18 percent
The rate this calculator uses. None of the 2026 tax alerts we read mentions a change.
Source: URA, The Taxman VAT guide (11 January 2022) and RSM Uganda Tax Guide 2025/26. Checked 19 September 2026.
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VAT inside a VAT-inclusive price18/118
About 15.25 percent of the total. Adding VAT is a multiplication by 1.18 and removing it is a division by 1.18. This is arithmetic on the 18 percent rate: URA's guide gives the rate, not the formula.
Source: worked from the rate in URA's VAT guide. Checked 19 September 2026.
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VAT registration threshold from 1 July 2026 Confirm with URAUGX 300 million
A business must register when its annual taxable turnover goes above UGX 300 million, up from UGX 150 million. Sources disagreed: the Bill as tabled proposed UGX 250 million, and reports after Parliament passed it give UGX 300 million. URA's own VAT pages still showed UGX 150 million when we checked, and we did not read the enacted Act itself.
Source: EY tax alert (11 June 2026) and Daily Monitor (11 August 2026). Checked 19 September 2026.
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Three-month test from 1 July 2026 Needs confirmationNot confirmed
Under the old rule a business also had to register if its taxable turnover passed UGX 37.5 million in three consecutive months. No source we checked gives the figure that goes with the new UGX 300 million threshold, so ask URA.
Source: URA's VAT guide for the old rule. Checked 19 September 2026.
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Threshold until 30 June 2026UGX 150 million
A year, or UGX 37.5 million in three consecutive months. Useful when you are looking back at an earlier period.
Source: URA's VAT guide. Checked 19 September 2026.
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VAT return and paymentBy the 15th
A VAT-registered business files a return for each month and pays the VAT due within 15 days after the end of the month, so by the 15th of the following month.
Source: URA's VAT guide and the RSM Uganda Tax Guide 2025/26. Checked 19 September 2026.
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Leaving VATFrom 1 July 2026
A business below the new threshold may apply online through the URA portal to deregister, subject to URA reviewing its records. That ends monthly VAT returns and also the right to claim input VAT.
Source: Daily Monitor (11 August 2026). Checked 19 September 2026.
For a ruling on your own sales, go to URA. Its EFRIS notice lists the toll-free line 0800 117 000, services@ura.go.ug and WhatsApp 0772 140 000 for help (checked 19 September 2026).
VAT and EFRIS
The VAT you work out here is the VAT that ends up on an EFRIS e-invoice. EFRIS is URA's Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution. URA stresses that it is not a new tax, but a way of recording sales. The rules that link it to VAT:
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Every VAT-registered businessE-invoices
All VAT-registered taxpayers must issue e-invoices through EFRIS. A business that is not registered for VAT but has to use EFRIS issues e-receipts instead.
Source: URA EFRIS notice (page dated 10 August 2026) and URA invoice and receipt issuance. Checked 19 September 2026.
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12 sectors, VAT registered or notSince 1 July 2025
Businesses in 12 sectors named by URA, among them manufacturing, construction, accommodation and food service, and real estate, must issue e-invoices or e-receipts through EFRIS whether or not they are registered for VAT. Annual turnover below UGX 10 million is exempt, though voluntary use is allowed. Leaving VAT does not end EFRIS for a business in one of these sectors with turnover of UGX 10 million or more: it issues e-receipts instead.
Source: URA EFRIS notice (page dated 10 August 2026). Checked 19 September 2026.
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What a genuine EFRIS document carriesFDN + code + QR
Each e-invoice or e-receipt has a Fiscal Document Number (FDN), a verification code and a QR code, all generated by EFRIS.
Source: URA invoice and receipt issuance. Checked 19 September 2026.
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Penalty for not using EFRISFrom 1 July 2026
A business that must use EFRIS and does not, fails to 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 million or UGX 8 million still found online are out of date.
Source: EY tax alert (11 June 2026). Checked 19 September 2026.
Not sure where you stand? Do I need EFRIS? walks through the tests, the EFRIS Uganda guide covers the whole system, and how to register for EFRIS covers the steps.
Put the VAT on a receipt, not a calculator
A calculator is fine for a quote. For every sale, the VAT has to reach an EFRIS e-invoice or e-receipt with its FDN, verification code and QR code, and that is a job for your till.
Growth Informer Business is our own live cloud POS, inventory and business-management platform: sales, stock, purchases, expenses and several branches, run from a phone, with restaurant and hotel modules for kitchen orders, tables, rooms and bookings. It issues URA EFRIS e-receipts and e-invoices today. EFRIS is a setting: switch it on when URA requires it, or earlier by choice, and leave it off until then, without changing systems. We can show it working before you commit.
Already running a POS, ERP or accounting system? We connect other systems to URA EFRIS by scoping each connection against URA's published specification and confirming it is feasible before we quote. Meeting URA's fiscal rules remains your business's own obligation; software makes that easier, it does not take the obligation away.
On integration and custom work you get a fixed quote before work starts, pay on a 50/25/25 plan, and own the source code and your data. Across all our work that is 37 live website and app builds you can open on our portfolio page. Message us on WhatsApp and we reply within 6 hours and set up a meeting for the next day.
Common questions
Uganda's standard VAT rate is 18 percent. To add VAT to a price before VAT, multiply the price by 18 and divide by 100, then add the result, which is the same as multiplying the price by 1.18. To find the VAT inside a price that already includes VAT, multiply it by 18 and divide by 118. UGX 100,000 before VAT becomes UGX 118,000 with VAT, and UGX 118,000 including VAT contains UGX 18,000 of VAT.
Divide the VAT-inclusive price by 1.18 to get the price before VAT, or multiply it by 18 and divide by 118 to get the VAT on its own. Do not take 18 percent of the total. The 18 percent is charged on the price before VAT, so the VAT inside a total is only about 15.25 percent of it. On UGX 118,000, taking 18 percent gives UGX 21,240, which is UGX 3,240 too much. The right answer is UGX 18,000.
From 1 July 2026 the threshold is annual taxable turnover above UGX 300 million, up from UGX 150 million, according to reports of the VAT (Amendment) Act 2026 that we checked on 19 September 2026. URA's own VAT pages still showed UGX 150 million when we checked, and the three-month test that goes with the new figure has not been confirmed, so confirm your position with URA before you rely on it.
A VAT-registered business files a return for each month and pays the VAT due within 15 days after the end of that month, so in practice by the 15th of the following month. The return for September, for example, is due by 15 October. URA is the authority on filing and payment, so ask URA if your case is unusual.
A zero-rated supply is taxed at 0 percent, so no VAT is added to the price but the seller can still claim input VAT on its costs. URA's guide gives exports, drugs and medicines made in Uganda, and cereals grown and milled in Uganda as examples. An exempt supply carries no VAT at all. Examples include financial services, education, health and life insurance, social welfare services, passenger transport and petroleum fuels. The lists change, so check a specific item with URA.
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