Value Added Tax (General) (Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (No. 69)
Gold supplied to Fidelity Gold Refinery is now zero-rated for VAT, so miners selling gold to Fidelity charge no VAT while keeping the right to claim input tax.
The Minister of Finance has created a new zero-rating route in the Value Added Tax (General) Regulations, 2003. A new section 13 says that supplies of goods or services taxed at zero per cent are those set out in a new Second Schedule.
That Second Schedule currently contains a single item: the supply of gold to Fidelity Gold Refinery (Private) Limited.
The practical difference matters. Zero-rating is not the same as exemption — a supplier making a zero-rated supply charges no VAT but remains entitled to claim input tax on its own purchases, which an exempt supplier cannot. For gold producers selling to Fidelity, that means VAT on inputs stays recoverable.
The regulations state no commencement date of their own. They were later backdated by S.I. 140 of 2024 (VAT Amendment No. 70), which deems these regulations effective from 1 January 2024. The extract carries a stray page header reading "S.I. 12 of 2023", which is a printing artefact.
What changed
- A new section 13 provides for zero-rated supplies to be listed in a new Second Schedule
- A new Second Schedule zero-rates the supply of gold to Fidelity Gold Refinery (Private) Limited
- S.I. 140 of 2024 later deems these regulations effective from 1 January 2024
Who this affects
- gold miners and small-scale gold producers selling to Fidelity
- Fidelity Gold Refinery (Private) Limited
- gold buying agents
- ZIMRA VAT assessors
Plain-language summary — not legal advice. Always read the full instrument.