Working with the Zambia Revenue Authority in Bumara — tax types, TPIN, monthly returns and Smart Invoice.
Rates, thresholds and deadlines change. The figures on this page reflect the rules Bumara
applies today and are given as a guide. The regulator’s current published position always
governs. Bumara applies the rate in force when your filing is calculated — always check the
figures shown on your actual filing rather than relying on this page, and take professional
advice on how the rules apply to your business.
The Zambia Revenue Authority handles your taxes. It is the regulator with the most frequent
obligations — most are monthly — and the one where falling behind grows most expensive, because
interest and penalties accrue.
Your Taxpayer Identification Number is ten characters and is required for almost everything:
invoicing, every return, employee records, and most other regulators’ processes.If you do not have one, request it as a service — TPIN application — from the ZRA service
catalogue. You will generally need your PACRA certificate first.Enter your TPIN in Set up your business. Bumara checks the format
but cannot verify it against ZRA, so check it against your certificate character by character.
This is the important step. Tick only what you are actually registered for:
Tax type
Tick it if
PAYE
You have employees on a payroll
Turnover tax
Your annual turnover is between K12,000 and K5,000,000 and you are registered for it
Income tax
You are on the standard regime rather than turnover tax
VAT
You are VAT registered
Withholding tax
You pay for services subject to withholding
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Bumara creates one obligation per tax type you selected, and generates the current period’s
filing for each.
Turnover tax and standard income tax are alternatives, not additions. If you are on turnover tax
you are not also filing standard income tax returns. Ticking both creates obligations you do not
owe and will spend months filing nil returns against.
If you had no activity in a month you still file — a nil return, with a reason:
Reason
When
No employees
You had nobody on the payroll
Below threshold
Activity was below the filing threshold
Temporarily inactive
The business paused
Seasonal
Your trade is seasonal and this is an off month
Unpaid leave
Staff were on unpaid leave
Other
Anything else — explain it
A nil return has a much shorter checklist and often becomes ready immediately.
An unfiled nil return is still an unfiled return, and attracts the same late-filing penalty as
one with figures. “We had no activity” is not a reason to skip the filing.
A valid tax clearance certificate is required for tenders, many contracts, and some licences.
ZRA will not issue one while you have outstanding returns or unpaid tax.Request one from the ZRA service catalogue. If it is refused, a
compliance health check will tell you exactly what is blocking it.
ZRA arrears grow. Interest accrues on unpaid tax, penalties are assessed for late filing, and
persistent non-compliance leads to audit flags and enforcement action.Run a compliance health check before doing anything else. It
establishes exactly what is outstanding across every tax type, with the penalties and interest
already accrued, so you are working from facts rather than estimates.ZRA checks are always treated as urgent in a health check, because tax exposure grows fastest.
