Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024

The second Finance Act of 2024 is the budget Act, and most of it takes effect from 1 January 2025.

The PAYE table is restated wholly in ZiG. Local-currency employment income is tax-free up to ZiG33 600 a year, then 20 per cent to ZiG100 800, 25 per cent to ZiG336 000, 30 per cent to ZiG672 000, 35 per cent to ZiG1 008 000, and 40 per cent above ZiG1 008 000.

Two new consumer-facing surcharges arrive. A 1 per cent surcharge applies to the sale value, inclusive of VAT, of specified fast foods — pizza, burgers, hot dogs, shawarma, tacos, chips, chicken, doughnuts and similar prescribed items — sold by any restaurant, takeaway, supermarket, retail outlet, hotel or lodge, whether eaten in or taken away. A 20 per cent surcharge applies to disposable plastic carrier bags, on the sale value for manufacturers and on the CIF value per consignment for importers. Both are returned by the fifth of the following month and paid by the tenth.

Enforcement gets harder. Where a taxpayer does not pay a civil penalty within thirty days, or pays it but still does not comply, the Commissioner-General must serve a closure notice shutting the business until compliance; ignoring a closure notice carries a fine up to level fourteen, up to twelve months' imprisonment, or both. A new section deems certain unregistered businesses liable for quarterly provisional corporate tax at amounts set in a new Thirty-Eighth Schedule, with no entitlement to offset, credit or refund — though paying the full deemed amount by the next quarterly date protects the business from closure or penalty. There is also a new restriction barring certain tax debtors from accessing credit above a set amount from financial institutions in any year, and ZIMRA civil penalties for late returns are capped at US$30 a day, stopping after ninety days, with a waiver where the failure was not wilful.

Mining and betting rates move. The levy on lithium, black granite, quarry stones and cut and uncut dimensional stone is set at 2 per cent of gross value on domestic sale or export, payable in the currency of trade. Royalties on all types of coal, black granite, other dimensional stone and quarry stones are set at 2 per cent. Bookmakers tax is 3 per cent of gross monthly takings and punters tax 10 per cent of gross winnings, withheld by the bookmaker. Special capital gains tax on transfers of mining title now bites on transactions concluded inside or outside Zimbabwe after 31 December 2023.

On VAT and customs, filing deadlines tighten: VAT returns move from the twenty-fifth to the fifteenth of the month, VAT on imported services from thirty days to fifteen, and excise and surtax returns from the twentieth to the fifteenth. Non-registered operators quoting on tenders above the VAT registration threshold must include tax in the quoted price. Procurement authorities, ministries and any organisation awarding tenders must report tenders awarded and their values to the Commissioner-General by the tenth of each month. Tax on unbeneficiated platinum and on dimensional stone exports must be paid in the currency of trade. Energy generation equipment can qualify for VAT deferment on capital goods. Unentered goods may be auctioned after sixty days, abandoned goods disposed of after fourteen, and duty assessments are not suspended by court proceedings.

A note on completeness and on the drafting. This summary is written from roughly the first two-thirds of the Act; the extract ends inside the new Part IIIA being inserted into the Gold Trade Act, which establishes a National Gold Refinery and a Gold Trade Enforcement Unit with seizure powers — anyone in gold trading must read that Part in the gazette. The Act also carries visible printing slips: the new PAYE table labels its top band "14(2)(a)(vii)" where it should be (vi), and section 14 is headed as inserting section 25E into "Cap. 23:04" when it plainly amends the Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06].