Zimbabwe’s tax agency has extended its amnesty on outstanding levies that were accrued prior to December 1, 2017, with the moratorium now set to close on June 30, this year.

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) is owed close to $4 billion by taxpayers dating back to 2009 — almost equal to the 2018 revenue target of $4,3 billion — but Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa in the 2018 Budget statement said economic challenges experienced over the past decade have resulted in a number of companies failing to meet their tax obligations.

“In an effort to encourage our valued clients to regularize their tax affairs, Government has, through the Finance Act No. 1 of 2018 published on 15 March 2018, made provisions for the granting of a tax amnesty to persons on application. Persons include companies, corporate or unincorporated body of persons and trusts.

“Any person who has unpaid tax or duty by 1 December 2017 is eligible to apply for tax amnesty. This applies to tax or duty already known by ZIMRA and recorded on its systems or that which a person had not declared to ZIMRA but should have been paid by 1 December 2017. The tax or duty should have been due and payable before 1 December 2017,” Zimra said in a statement released on its website.

The tax agency has been giving amnesty to defaulters to allow them to regularize and catch up on tax payments but the authority said the response has been underwhelming as the economy struggled.

However, Zimra has been meeting targets of late on the back of intensified risk based audits. In its February report, the agency said it collected $339,1 million in gross revenue against a target of $322,5 million with monthly gross collections growing 32,1 percent when compared to same period last year.

Government will also consider a moratorium on tax arrears owed by companies that benefited from debt assumption by the Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation as turnaround efforts by some of the companies were affected by the adverse macroeconomic environment, exacerbated by the high tax arrears.

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