Who must file
Every company, partnership and self-employed individual with business profits registers for and pays income tax, and files an annual self-assessment return. Businesses with annual turnover of K5,000,000 or less pay turnover tax instead and file monthly, not annually — but partnerships, mining businesses and management and consultancy businesses are outside turnover tax whatever their turnover and file the annual income tax return. A partnership files its own annual return and each partner files separately on their profit share. Employees taxed under PAYE do not normally file, but file an ITF/1A to claim a refund after leaving employment.
Tax year and deadline
The charge year is 1 January to 31 December. The annual self-assessment return, and the balance of tax due on it, are due by 21 June of the following year under section 46. Provisional tax runs alongside: the provisional return of estimated income is due on or before 31 March of the charge year itself, and the four instalments fall due 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December, each payable by the 10th of the month after — 10 April, 10 July, 10 October and 10 January.
Filing step by step
- Sign in at portal.zra.org.zm with TPIN, password and captcha, then enter the one-time password sent to your email and phone.
- Select Returns, then File a return. Choose tax type Income Tax, your account name, and the return period — enter 1 January of the charge year and the system fills in the last day.
- Complete the balance sheet form, which turns green when it balances, and the income statement, using the figures from your financial statements for that charge year.
- Choose your income sources and enter the income and expenditure summaries to arrive at taxable income, then complete the tax computation and the remaining schedules. Add back what the Income Tax Act disallows — entertainment unless you are in the entertainment business, depreciation, provisions for doubtful debts, tax and penalties, and personal or domestic expenditure.
- Upload the signed Certificate ITF 56 A or B, signed by you or by whoever prepared the accounts, then submit. The portal returns a submission reference number. Pay the balance by 21 June. A late return costs K400 per month for an individual and K800 per month for a company, and understating income by at least a third carries a further penalty of 25% of the tax underpaid.