OVER 7, 000 IN BID TO BEAT TAX AMNESTY
NEWSROOM G MARKETIN
AS the tax amnesty is coming to the end this month, over 7, 775 applications have been received by the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).
The amnesty announced last year in September by Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane during the 2023 national budget presentation is meant to scrap off all penalties and interest accrued on tax defaults up to September 30, 2022 once they settle their tax arrears.
Most declarations were coming from Pay As You Earn (PAYE) from the companies that were not declaring.
This is according to the ZRA Director Research and Corporate Strategy, Ezekiel Phiri, in an interview on the sidelines of the Media Workshop on Tax
Reporting recently.
“This is because some companies whose employees were below the threshold for PAYE while others were fully aware that they needed to declare PAYE for their employees,” Mr Phiri said.
He however mentioned that some of these companies had taken advantage of the amnes
Lusaka ty exercise to declare PAYE for
their employees.
Mazabuka
He also indicated that most
Chirundu
applications were coming from
Siavonga Lusaka and the Copperbelt
provinces.
Chilanga
Mr Phiri said ZRA was mon
Kafue gorge
itoring all the provinces based
Rufunsa on their needs and staff are on
the ground and encouraging
Chongwe
taxpayers wanting to access
Chisamba
tax amnesty to set their records
Chibombo right.
He said a few applications
Mumbwa and
had been rejected because of
Nampundwe failing to adhere to the terms and conditions set to qualify for tax amnesty.
Mr Phiri however said the emphasis was not to reject applications but to ensure that the applicants include required information in the application process.
He said the most important out of the amnesty exer
Kabwe cise was that the applicants
file their outstanding returns
Mukonchi
and ZRA was ensuring that was
Ngabwe
achieved.
Mumbwa “The authority and was not ask
ing applicants about their past
surrounding
records if they were coming
arears with a declaration that they evaded tax before.
“We are just registering whatever the applicants have declared and start afresh going forward, we are not asking them about past records,” he said.