Sat, 11 Feb 2017 10:10:00 +0000
THE requirement for all bank account holders to have a Taxpayer Identification Number (TPIN) is targeted at those who evade paying taxes by using personal accounts to conduct business, the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has clarified.
ZRA commissioner general Kingsley Chanda, explained in an interview that there would be no taxes on customer’s deposits, especially those with personal accounts which were not used for business purposes.
“There is no tax on your deposits. The reason we are linking your personal account to a TPIN is because there are some people who use their personal accounts to do business.
“Businesses are required to have a TPIN and registered for various taxes. They deposit money that they earn from businesses into their personal accounts and those businesses remain untaxed,” he said.
Mr Chanda said the TPIN was for intelligence purposes and monitoring of company transactions while ensuring that people open business account for ZRA to collect due taxes.
He explained that the banks would immediately alert ZRA as soon as large deposits believed to be for business purposes where detected in a personal accounts.
“If the bank sees that you are making huge deposits then they will know that money is not coming from your salary.
“The banks will then alert us and then we will contact you to find out what you are doing and if you are registered for tax. You are supposed to pay a certain percentage of that income in your business account to ZRA,” he said. Mr Chanda emphasised that ZRA would not tax accounts which were already taxed, such as salaries.
He has since advised all bank account holders to obtain a TPIN from ZRA.
“Personal accounts will not be touched provided there is no illegal activities happening. How it works is that just take your NRC and come to ZRA, then they will give you a TPIN.
“First you get your TPIN certificate from ZRA after which you go to your bank and submit so that as part of your personal details, they will include your TPIN number as well, then we get our money,” he said.
