- ZIMRA to keep different currency accounts for tax income.
- Traded currencies must be used to pay taxes
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has created the forex Business Partner (BP) account for the forex and mobilized taxation payment direct through an electronic method which has to some extent helped the taxpayers to have easy processing of tax remittances.
Traditionally the tax revenue-collecting body has been processing tax payments using single-handed accounts which left taxpayers with the convertible risk in the quarterly process. Cooperate taxes are pegged to the registered organization with few exception waivers.
ZIMRA expressed the need to have a separate tax account for remittances arguing that the board needs to separate the two for accountability. “The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), wishes to advise its valued taxpayers that in light of the need to clearly separate and account for tax in ZWL and forex, ZIMRA has introduced a separate business partner (BP) number that will be used for processing forex returns. The forex BP number has 9 digits prefixed by a 3 instead of a 2 for ZWL,” reads part of the statement.
Arguably the fiscal policy board can have a clear view of the dominating currency and have a narrative of the proportion of traded currencies in the industry. Of late, the statistics have shown that 40% of the transactions in Zimbabwe are in USD currency. This is only prudent that the ZIMRA revenue board collects the equivalent proportion.
Post the ZIMRA announcement, taxpayers will have two different BP numbers for both currencies. In a statement, the taxpayer is registered under the ZWL BP number, the forex BP number will have the same contract accounts. “Taxpayers will be expected to submit all the forex returns and make forex tax payments through this new forex BP number. The ZWL BP number will remain in use for the submission of ZWL returns and the payments thereof’’, says the statement released.
