ZIMRA to start taxing SMEs this year

Zimbabwe’s tax collector the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) says it will start collecting taxes from small to medium enterprises this year to widen the shrinking revenue base, an official said today.

Revenue collections for the third quarter of last year fell nine percent behind target with the trend likely to continue in the fourth quarter, whose figures are yet to be released, due to a cash squeeze and poor economic fundamentals.

Corporate income tax was at $92 million, missing the $104 million target.

It is estimated that between $3 billion and $7 billion is circulating in the informal sector, which currently does not pay any form of taxes.

“Our thrust this year is to start collections from the small to medium enterprises. We are currently working on an invoicing system that will help us with audits for this particular sector,” ZIMRA acting commissioner general Tjiyapo Velempini said.

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa  painted a bleak picture of the economy when announcing the 2015 budget last November dramatized by 64 000 job losses in the past four years as over 4 600 firms closed shop.- The Source

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