BY MISHMA CHAKANYUKA
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) is sweating over the fiscalisation of companies after it emerged that some entities have not connected the recording of their taxable transactions on the fiscal devices, thereby prejudicing the taxman.
Fiscalisation refers to the use of fiscal devices to record taxable transactions on the read-only fiscal memory at the time of sale for value added tax (VAT) purposes.
“The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has noted that some registered operators have not fiscalised the recording of their taxable transactions. It is a legal requirement that registered operators must fiscalise their operations. Registered operators who fiscalise the recording of their taxable transactions must also ensure that the fiscal devices are interfaced with Zimra servers for the purposes of transmitting information to Zimra,” Zimra said in a communique.
According to Zimra, with effect from October 1, 2011 in terms of Statutory Instrument (S1) 104 of 2010 as amended by SI 99 which was gazetted on August 1 2011, all eligible registered operators were required to commence recording of transactions using fiscalised devices.
Government introduced fiscalisation in 2010. All companies with an annual turnover of $240 000 are required by law to install the devices in line with value-added tax fiscalised recording of Taxable Transactions Amendment Regulations of 2010.
The use of fiscal devices has faced negative responses from both big companies as well as small to medium enterprises as they complained over the high cost of buying the fiscal devices.
Fiscalised devices are electronic gadgets which contain a fiscal memory. These are fiscalised electronic registers; also referred to as electronic tax registers (ETRs), fiscalised printers and electronic signature devices (ESDs).
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Fiscalised electronic tax registers record sales at the point of sale, as such it guards against tax evasion.
Registered operators on the fiscalisation system enjoy benefits such as good record keeping, reduced error chances when compiling Vat returns and minimised chances of fraudulent practices by cashiers.
“The registered operator should ensure that all points of sale are fiscalised in all its branches. It is the duty of the registered operator to ensure that the fiscal machines are functional all the time. Once the registered operator is fiscalised, the law does not allow them to use any other systems without the approval of Zimra.
“All registered operators are required by law to interface all of their fiscal devices to the Zimra server. The registered operator should contact their supplier of fiscal devices for interface assistance. Once a device has been interfaced, it should be able to transmit data to the Zimra server. The registered operator is obliged to run reports daily,” Zimra said.
