News reaching our desk is that the Government of Uganda intends to tax the work of musicians and to that effect, Uganda Revenue Authority, a body responsible for collecting tax in Uganda, has directed every Ugandan musician to register and get a Tax Identification Number (TIN) which they should use to pay their taxes.
This news has caused a big debate among musicians with many claiming that this move is intended to bring the Music industry down, while a section of musicians claim that this move has political undertones in it.
While appearing at an interview on Nation Media’s SPARK TV, the B2C singers, famous for their latest hit “Obulungi bunnuma” were not comfortable with the government directive of musicians having to pay taxes after holding concerts and they went ahead to say that government wants to reap from an industry in which it doesn’t sow anything. So they think that this directive is just another way for the government making free money from an industry it doesn’t invest in.
On the 3rd of January, 2023, a meeting between the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and the leadership of the Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) held a meeting to discuss the details of this directive of musicians having to pay taxes after holding concerts, in which singers Cinderella Sanyu and Hanson Baliruno promised to take the musicians through the pros and cons of this directive.
As a constitutional mandate, everyone is supposed to pay taxes as required by Government, and it is The government’s job to collect these taxes. It is through taxes that government builds roads, schools, hospitals, and other social amenities for the benefit of everyone. However, there has been some resistance in some sectors of people as far as collecting taxes is concerned. People keep asking themselves why they should continue to pay these taxes yet at times they are misused by some government officials due to Massive corruption and bribery, hence frustrating the Spirit of tax compliance among the citizenry.
However, I believe that in exercising its mandate of collecting taxes, Government should be fair to these musicians and avoid overcharging them. In other businesses outside music, traders are complaining of being charged high fees in form of taxes, to the extent of some of them being taxed out of business.
Government should also invest directly in the music industry in Uganda. This can be done for example by reducing taxes on music equipment entering Uganda, and offering a free venue for some music festivals at least once in every region. This could help musicians to maximize profits, reduce operating costs and also pay meaningful taxes.
Government should also enforce the copyright law in Uganda so that musicians reduce only reliance on staging concerts which is not sustainable and get to earn money passively from their music just like it is in Nigeria and other developed countries where copyright law works well. This will cause the musicians to feel included directly in government programs other than simply milking money out of
them in form of taxes.
Apart from that, musicians are already meeting many costs in their operations. For instance, when they stage shows, they pay fees to KCCA in Kampala to allow them to operate in the city. They also pay Uganda police to allow them to clear the show whether it is secure enough. Those who own music studios pay an operating license because music studios are businesses on their own. The adverts which are paid in the media to advertise shows are also taxed, if people buy music tickets online, there is a tax on it, etc. All this money ends up in the government because those are government bodies.
Therefore, the government should not charge musicians a lot of money in taxes, it should be fair to them, otherwise, the industry which is already employing so many people might collapse slowly.
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