I would like to challenge Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) Commissioner-General Gershem Pasi to immediately take corrective remedies as a way of encouraging small business to come and register for contribution of taxes to the fiscus.
Disgruntled
I strongly agree with the view of Small to Medium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni that the penalties being charged by Zimra are not good for the current business environment as they are indeed exorbitant and some of them are even insensible.
Like in our case, we are a small company which also took advantage of the tax amnesty to update our records. We supplied all the required information of all the outstanding Pay As You Earn (PAYE) contributions. The principal amount was calculated and a payment plan was agreed and we were even issued with a tax clearance.
In the process of renewing of the tax clearance, we were shocked to be told that our PAYE account had been penalised and billed $28 000 for ITF 16 that was supposed to be submitted, but failed.
We frantically made efforts, but to no avail to have the penalties waivered as the tax clearance certificate (ITF) 16 is the annual summary of PAYE already submitted.
At the moment the debt management department is in the process of litigating us for this penalty. We are now in danger of getting out of business because we are unable to pay this penalty.
To make matters worse, our operations have been crippled as our customers require the tax clearance to do business with us.
