One of the things ZRA has to really analyze is the cost of collecting certain taxes vs a waiver and formalization.
Example, why spend 100,000zmw in costs for ZRA to collect 20,000zmw in taxes?
Especially on busineses that clearly wont be able to pay.
A 1 time analysis and proposal to waive what without a doubt wont be collected can be a step towards helping SMEs to do a reset.
I dont have the data but i know from a business perspective i wouldnt spend 100,000zmw to collect 20,000zmw in taxes. Im sure they have their own frameworks and i hope they can consider the coming budget as an opportunity to help alot of SMEs reset.
The last 5 years had operational challenges for alot of companies as we experienced volatility in currency, inflation was high and needed to go down and the general business enviroment was made difficult by loadshedding.
But regardless, SMEs persevered and even having experienced losses to due to structural challenges, they still understood that the UPND government is the government that is committed to private sector success.
The SME ministry was rated the lowest by many when we did our poll, so that help also never came.
I think, one of the issues is that we have focused so much on “credit access” for SMEs that we have neglected the structural changes that can actually help them even if they dont have easy credit access. And that is the tax regime that governs their business.
Think like this: i would rather not deal with credit access if the tax regime is still going to choke me. But i can succeed seeding capital from my own means with a tax system that is favorable.
We need to balance our truthful commitment to helping SMEs with credit and the tax regime; with the latter more important than credit access.
George Mtonga, MBA