adminSpeaking on the sidelines of one of the seminars held in Harare last week, Mr Marvellous Tapera, a manager for taxation services with Deloitte & Touche, said there was need to educate taxpayers on the new Bill as lack of knowledge could hamper implementation.
“We urge responsible authorities to roll out education programmes on the new Bill and also the Finance Ministry to speed up formulation and implementation of the Finance Act as currently there is uncertainty on the tax rates to be applied.
“This can have serious economic consequences in the absence of clarity on such issues,” he said.
Speaking at the same occasion, Deloitte & Touche partner taxation services Mr Hammond des Fontaine said the Bill proposes a major shift from a source based tax system to a residence based tax system.
“The Bill proposes a fundamental shift by the country from a source based taxing system to a residence- based system and taxation will be done depending on whether the person is a resident, temporary resident or a non-resident for tax purposes.
“Residents of Zimbabwe will be subject to tax on income and gains from anywhere in the world subject to an offset of the foreign tax paid,” said Mr Des Fontaine.
He added that temporary residents will generally be liable to pay Zimbabwean tax on their worldwide income which is required to be remitted to Zimbabwe in terms of the Exchange Control Regulations and all income derived from a source in Zimbabwe.
The Bill also redefines deductible expenses by providing that tax deductible expenses can only be those closely related to the production of the income in question.
Deloitte has so far conducted seminars in Victoria Falls, Bulawayo and Harare through its School of Tax.
If the Bill becomes law it will repeal and replace the Income Tax Act Chapter 23:06 first enacted in 1967 and the Capital Gains Tax Act Chapter 23:01 enacted in 1981.
Online Reporter