THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has declared that there is no single property within the city that meets the threshold for the recently introduced wealth tax, at least according to their records.
The council asserts that none of the properties in the city were valued at over US$250 000, the minimum requirement for the tax that was introduced by the Minister of Finance and Investment Promotion, Prof Mthuli Ncube, in the 2024 national budget.
The introduction of the tax was followed by the promulgation of the Finance Act 13 of 2023 where Section 360 directs that the tax will be levied at a rate of one percent of the value of a dwelling other than a principal private dwelling of a taxpayer, if such value exceeds US$250 000. The maximum tax liability on any one taxable dwelling was set at US$50 000 per annum, with the collection being done by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) with assistance from local authorities.
Zimra
“In terms of Section 36(0) of the Income Tax Act, Local authorities were designated collection agents for Zimra until such a time that Zimra was able to collect the tax. Further in terms of Section 22 (0) of the Finance Act, Council would be expected to remit the whole amount to Zimra unless there were any amounts of commission agreed to.”
However, BCC has revealed that there had no property in the entire city that fell under the required threshold.
According to the latest council report in terms of the last assessment by the local authority, the highest value unit was pegged at US$115 000. Council did not disclose the location of its most expensive property, although traditionally, the most valuable properties in the city were found in Burnside. Property valuation involves analysing various factors such as location, size, age, condition, and other relevant features that affect the property’s value. The valuation gives an estimate of the property’s worth in the market, according to guestandtanner.co.zw. – Sunday News
