How Mthuli Ncube’s 2024 budget will hit your pocket

More taxes

Mthuli has even more bad news for you. Passport fees are going up from US$120 to US$200.

Vehicle Registry Fees are also up.

If you love fizzy

Mthuli is charging a new tax on the sugar in your fizzy drinks. He says this is “necessary to discourage consumption of high sugar content beverages”. Each drink will now come with a tax of US$0.02 per gram of sugar. What will the money be used for? It will be used for therapy and procurement of cancer equipment for diagnosis, Mthuli says.

If you’re a home-owner

If your house is worth over US$100 000, you will now pay an annual 1% “Wealth tax” on the value of your house. The money, Mthuli says, will be used for “urban infrastructure development, in particular roads, water, sewer and community health centres.” However, people aged over 70 are exempted from paying this taxes for their private homes.

“Upon assessment of the value of the property and the tax payable thereof, taxpayers may elect to pay the tax on monthly, quarterly, or annual basis,” Ncube says. He gave no detail on how the valuation would be done. It would take an extensive, and costly, exercise to assess homes all around the country.

If you stashed your money in a vault

Because you don’t trust the bank, you may have a vault at your bank or the security company. Mthuli wants to know what’s in there, and whether it is legal or tax-compliant. Under current laws, the government can only do that with a court order, due to privacy laws. A garnish order cannot be issued on money kept in vaults. Ncube says this is helping people evade taxes and commit crimes.

Now, Ncube is proposing to give ZIMRA powers to “open custody vaults at any time to ascertain contents and that financial institutions and other companies that offer custodial services receipt the contents of cash in their custody”.- NewZWire

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