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Registration is compulsory once taxable supplies exceed $25,000 in any 12 months — a figure that dropped from US$40,000 on 1 January 2024 and caught a lot of businesses that had checked once and stopped checking. Put your turnover in.
Taxable supplies over 12 months
$30,000
against a compulsory registration threshold of $25,000
A threshold test is not a tax opinion. Whether a particular supply is taxable, zero-rated or exempt is a question for your accountant, and this tool does not answer it.
Talk it through on WhatsAppIf you are registered, work out your fiscalisation exposureWhat follows registration
A VAT-registered operator has to issue fiscal receipts from a registered device. That is the obligation most businesses discover second, after they have already crossed the threshold, and it is the one with a $25-a-day price on it.
The obligation starts when your supplies exceed the threshold or you expect them to, not when you get around to the paperwork. Registering on time is the cheapest version of this; being registered compulsorily after the fact is the expensive one.
Charging 15% is the easy half. Issuing receipts through a registered fiscal device, keeping the counters straight across tills, and handling refunds against the original receipt is the half that fails quietly for months.
What that costs per dayQuestions
$25,000 — or the ZWG equivalent — in taxable supplies over any 12-month period, with effect from 1 January 2024. It was US$40,000 before that, which is why older guidance you may be holding is wrong.
Rolling. The test is taxable supplies that exceed, or are expected to exceed, $25,000 within any 12 months — so a strong second half can put you over it without the calendar year closing.
Standard-rated and zero-rated supplies both count. Exempt supplies do not, and neither do occasional private sales or hobby income. If a large share of your turnover is exempt, take the split to your accountant before relying on any single number.
The Commissioner General may register you compulsorily, and you become liable for the VAT that should have been charged, plus interest and penalties, on the turnover already made. Registering late is more expensive than registering early.
Charge VAT at 15% on taxable supplies, file returns, keep the records that support them, and issue fiscal receipts through a registered fiscal device. Failing that last one carries its own civil penalty of $25 per point of sale per day, capped at 181 days.
Get ahead of it
Tell us your turnover and how many tills you run. We will tell you what registering means for your invoicing, and what it costs to have the receipts right from day one.
Next step
Fiscal covers ZIMRA fiscalisation from $15 a month billed annually, across as many tills as you run.
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