The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) fostered a major partnership by signing a memorandum of agreement with Zimbabwe Investment Authority(ZIDA) on 12 January 2024 in Harare. The MOU aims to enhance Ease of doing Business and to facilitate domestic and foreign investment in Zimbabwe.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the two entail a one stop Investment centre which encompasses integration of electronic services and investor-related services. The agreement also provides a platform for information exchange on Investor Tax incentives and Tax obligations. The parties also agreed to work together in formulating policies to promote ease of doing business and investment.

Making his remarks during the signing ceremony the ZIDA Chief Executive Officer Mr Tendai Chinamo highlighted that ZIDA already had an existing cordial relationship with ZIMRA.

“We are now committing ourselves to even higher standards, we are saying how can we become more efficient. When an investor comes generally most of the intervention has to do with tax obligations. We will also advise ZIMRA on policies that affect the entry retention and facilitation of investments and provide assistance to ZIMRA to enable it to perform its functions in terms of the legislation administered by ZIMRA,” he said.

In a statement during the same event the ZIMRA Commissioner General emphasized the Authority’s commitment to service. “The collaboration goes deeper to demonstrate that we want to serve and It’s incumbent on us to do what is necessary. We want to be proactive and the transparency signified by this MoU is a starting point. She added that ZIMRA is going to provide accurate, correct and timely information to the new investors, and it is going to create awareness in terms of the tax obligations that exist giving ZIMRA a pre-and post –investor experience. As we move forward it is important that even when you are working on investment policy, you also have adequate information in terms of monitoring and evaluation of the nature and quality of our investments. On our side, we also need information upfront to know who we are dealing with in order to enhance compliance.” She said.

The partnership between the two parties will consequently integrate their systems to achieve real-time log in of investor information and real-time processing of queries and issues that deal with promotion, protection and facilitation of investment in the country. Commenting during the same event Theresa Machingura, the Chief Legal Officer stressed on the benefits of integrating the two systems which would increase efficiency. She further indicated that the clearly defined roles of the two parties in the MOU, would be in the best interest of the investor.

 “The collaboration aims to ensure Zimbabwe becomes a destination of choice” said Machingura.