MY petition is based on the Shona proverb, “Mwana asingacheme anofira mumbereko.” This translates to “A child who does not cry dies in the baby carrier on the mother’s back.”
The proverb reminds us that silent suffering can be fatal. It speaks directly to the quiet hardship facing Zimbabwe’s old age pensioners, whose survival strategies may now be misclassified as commercial enterprise under the presumptive tax regime.
I am, like many others, a retiree who faithfully and loyally paid national taxes for over three and a half decades of formal employment. During this period of employment, I contributed to pension and life insurance schemes. The savings and benefits of the pension and insurance schemes were virtually wiped away by the tsunami of the 2007-2008 hyperinflation, which left many pensioners struggling even for necessities such as food and medical care. To cushion the devastation caused by hyperinflation-eroded pensions and insurance policies, many pensioners have had to invest in survival hustles, such as property, to earn a living. It was a case of ‘property or poverty.’
Zimbabwe’s efforts to broaden the tax base and improve revenue collection are understandable. The presumptive tax on rentals was introduced to capture income from properties used for business purposes, particularly where accurate income declarations are difficult to enforce. The tax assumes income potential and applies a fixed rate — currently 15% of gross rental income — to landlords leasing properties for business use. Registration is required for all such property owners.
As a tool aimed at commercial rental activity, presumptive tax has merit. A problem arises in its indiscriminate application. But across the country, many pensioners have converted their primary private residences and subsequent properties to rental spaces for business use — small shops, offices, salons, consulting rooms, schools or informal enterprises. These conversions are not driven by profit-seeking but by economic necessity brought about by the eroded pensions and insurance schemes. For instance, monthly pensions paid by the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) are, for many beneficiaries, so eroded that they are barely sufficient to purchase basic mobile airtime, let alone food, pay for utilities or medical care. Despite years of engagement, attempts to compensate pensioners for lost savings have failed to deliver meaningful redress.
Special mention needs to be made of medical care. Medical care for pensioners is high primarily due to the increased prevalence of multiple chronic conditions, the need for specialised long-term care, and, in some systems, significant out-of-pocket expenses not covered by base insurance. Medical aid contribution rates in Zimbabwe have seen substantial, frequent increases, driven by high inflation and currency volatility, with some providers proposing significant hikes for pensioners to cover rising operational costs and reduce service shortfalls. Furthermore, one cannot change the medical aid society after a certain age (65+), as the societies have age restrictions on new registrations. So, funeral cover becomes the only option.
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Faced with the reality of a high cost of living, pensioners have turned their homes into income-generating spaces simply to survive. Many pensioners invested in the property sector to preserve their hard-earned living wealth in place of the brutally battered pensions and insurance payouts. By classifying these converted residential properties as business rental premises, presumptive tax effectively treats pensioners as commercial landlords.
Any tax regime must consider age, health-related expenses, or the absence of alternative income. Presumptive tax fails to distinguish between a property investor and an elderly person trying to make ends meet.
The result is that pensioners are being taxed not on surplus income, but on what they need to eat, access healthcare and live with dignity.
More distressing is the fact that this taxation comes after pensioners already lost their lifetime savings through economic shocks entirely beyond their control.
This is not a call to abandon presumptive tax. It is a call for policy sensitivity and differentiation. The government can preserve the intent of taxing genuine business rentals while protecting pensioners by introducing a Pensioner Rental Tax Relief Policy, based on the premise that the first rental property keeps a pensioner alive; the second builds income. Our tax system must recognise the difference. The proposal is that the policy to address pensioners' plight should be drafted and crafted thus:
An individual who has attained retirement age and is recognised as an old age pensioner shall be exempt from presumptive tax on rental income derived from the first rental property owned, including any portion of their primary residence converted for rental or business purposes.
Rental income derived from second and subsequent properties owned by such pensioners shall be subject to a reduced presumptive tax rate, not exceeding 50% of the standard rate applicable.
The exemption and reduced rate shall apply upon proof of pensioner status and property ownership as prescribed by the tax authority, Zimra.
This relief recognises rental income earned by pensioners as pension-replacement income necessitated by the historical loss of retirement benefits.
Such measures would have minimal impact on revenue but significant social benefit.
Zimbabwe’s pensioners are former teachers, nurses, civil servants, factory workers, and professionals who contributed faithfully to national development. They are not exploiting loopholes or avoiding tax; they are adapting to hardship after massive losses. A fiscal system that cannot distinguish between enterprise and survival risks is inefficient.
The Mwana asingacheme… proverb warns against the consequences of neglecting distressed pensioners who have borne this burden in silence for far too long. Hopefully, there is a listening mother.
Presumptive tax must not become another policy that deepens their hardship. Granting targeted relief to old age pensioners is not charity — it is justice, dignity, and a moral obligation.
Engineer Tororiro Isaac Chaza
Loyal citizen and pensioner