Willia Bonyongwe, the chair of the board of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has revealed that tax authority will be increasing tax audits in order to collect more revenue. Speaking to the Financial Gazette, Bonyongwe said:
The pressure is on ZIMRA now to collect as much as possible. We have increased audits because we want to know the conduct of clients. We are now looking at historical transactions, going back to six years and the current ones. For the historical transactions, we accept payment plans.
Many clients are not known to ZIMRA but they go to holidays so often. So, we are saying that if you are well known to Emirates, you should also be known to your taxman. We know money is there in people’s homes but the issue is they are reluctant to pay taxes. They play catch me if you can game
…I think people should just be honest. They are paying everyone every month, but don’t want to pay ZIMRA its dues. The rightful place is to pay taxes on time and in full, then people will not have problems with the tax authorities.
However, Steve Matoushaya, a tax director at KPMG Zimbabwe, said:
Many of our clients are saying that they are not happy with the never ending audits from ZIMRA. Despite that, companies would have been audited by external auditors, ZIMRA audits take much longer and it appears they are auditing every single expense. Clients are complaining about this.
More: Financial Gazette