HARARE – The cash-strapped government has amended the Finance Bill to enable it to tax
foreign satellite service providers such as Multichoice.

Parliament has acceded to the amendment of Section 14 of the Income Tax Act so that fees and charges that are paid to foreign satellite service providers are deemed as income sourced from Zimbabwe for the purposes of taxation.

During debate on the Finance Bill, some lawmakers had resisted the amendment on the basis that it was not enough to seek to tax foreign providers of broadcasting services in
Zimbabwe.Harare East Member of Parliament Tendai Biti had in fact proposed that the Act be amended so that the method of calculating income tax in Zimbabwe moves from residents to source.

It was, however, not the first time that
government had advocated for the source-based approach. In 2013, Parliament passed a new Income Tax Act which introduced, in a revolutionary manner, the method of calculating tax from residence to source.Daily News