Capital gains tax (CGT) in Zimbabwe is a self-contained tax with its own statute, the Capital Gains Tax Act [Chapter 23:01], first enacted in 1981 and in force from 1 August 1981. This lesson is the architectural survey of that statute — the load-bearing walls on which every other CGT lesson rests. Before a student can compute a gain, claim a rollover, argue an exemption or file a return, they must understand what the Act charges, how it is structured, what its key terms mean, and how it leans on the Income Tax Act. That is the work of this lesson.

The charging provision is Section 6: CGT is "charged, levied and collected throughout Zimbabwe … in respect of the capital gains … received by or accrued to or in favour of any person during any year of assessment", excluding gains that accrued before 1 August 1981. Three features of the charge matter enormously. First, the tax bites on a capital gain, a defined term — not on every increase in wealth. Second, it bites only on the disposal of a specified asset (immovable property, marketable securities, and certain registrable intellectual-property and mining rights — Section 2). Third, and unusually, Zimbabwe's CGT — like its income tax — is fundamentally source-based: the gross capital amount is built only from disposals "from a source within Zimbabwe" (Section 8(1)). The rate is not in the CGT Act at all; Section 7 directs us to the Finance Act [Chapter 23:04], which fixes the rate "from time to time".

The Act's defining structural feature is its dependence on the Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] — which the CGT Act itself calls the "Taxes Act". The CGT Act does not re-invent the machinery of tax administration; instead, by a series of "mutatis mutandis" cross-references, it imports the Income Tax Act's provisions on returns and assessments (Section 23), representative taxpayers (Section 24), offences and evidence (Section 27), double-taxation relief (Section 28), and the general anti-avoidance rule (Section 29, applying Section 98 of the Taxes Act). It even borrows the Income Tax Act's definitions wholesale: Section 2(2) provides that expressions defined in the Taxes Act carry the same meaning in the CGT Act unless otherwise defined. The two Acts are therefore best understood as siblings sharing one administrative engine. The most important point of interaction is the capital/revenue boundary: an amount proved by the taxpayer to constitute "gross income" under Section 8 of the Income Tax Act is excluded from the gross capital amount (Section 8(1) CGT Act) — so the same receipt cannot be taxed under both heads. The CGT system catches the capital gains that the income tax deliberately lets through its "of a capital nature" exclusion.

The funnel that turns proceeds into a taxable gain is defined in Section 8(1): gross capital amount (total proceeds from Zimbabwean-source sales of specified assets on/after 1 August 1981, less amounts proved to be gross income) → capital amount (gross capital amount less amounts exempt under Section 10) → capital gain (capital amount less all Section 11 deductions: acquisition cost, improvements, the inflation allowance, and selling costs). The Act also contains a generous list of exemptions in Section 10 (paragraphs (a)–(r)), including disposals by the deceased estate's executor, sales of certain government and statutory bonds, sales by over-55s of their principal private residence (Section 10(l)), the first US$ 1,800 of marketable-security proceeds for over-55s (Section 10(m)), and sales of securities listed on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (Section 10(r)).

Administratively, the Act provides its own objection and appeal route in Section 25 (objection within 30 days, then the Income Tax Act's appeal machinery in Sections 62–70), its own payment rules in Section 26 (tax due within 30 days of accrual on a suspensive/credit sale, or within 30 days of formal transfer of title otherwise), and the clearance gateway in Section 30A (no registration of transfer by the Registrar of Deeds or a share registrar without a ZIMRA certificate that any CGT due has been paid). A separate withholding regime sits in Part IIIA (Sections 22A–22L), and a special charge on offshore acquisitions of mining title sits in Section 30B (from 1 January 2024). This lesson maps all of these and shows how they fit together; the later lessons drill into each. The governing date threshold for the rate — frequently misquoted — is 22 February 2019 (Finance Act 7/2021), at which the basis shifts from 5% of the gross capital amount (pre-2019 assets) to 20% of the capital gain (post-2019 assets).

To understand the legal framework of CGT, begin with a question of first principle: why does Zimbabwe need a separate capital gains tax at all, when it already has an income tax? The answer lies in the structure of the income tax itself. The Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] taxes a person's gross income, defined in its Section 8(1) as amounts received or accrued from a Zimbabwean source "excluding any amount … proved … to be of a capital nature". That single exclusion — "of a capital nature" — carves a hole in the income tax base. The profit a speculator makes from buying and selling shares as a trade is income and is taxed; but the gain a long-term investor makes when she sells the family farm she has held for twenty years is capital and falls straight through the income-tax net. Without a capital gains tax, that gain would escape taxation entirely. The Capital Gains Tax Act exists precisely to catch what the income tax deliberately lets through.

This relationship is the single most important idea in the legal framework, and it explains the architecture of the whole Act. CGT is complementary to income tax, not overlapping with it. The two are designed to be mutually exclusive at the level of any given receipt: an amount is either gross income (taxed under the Income Tax Act) or a gross capital amount (taxed under the CGT Act), but never both. The statutory hinge that enforces this is in the Section 8(1) definition of "gross capital amount", which expressly excludes "any amount so received or accrued which is proved by the taxpayer to constitute 'gross income' as defined in subsection (1) of Section 8 of the Taxes Act". The burden is on the taxpayer to prove an amount is gross income (and therefore outside CGT) — or, conversely, capital (and therefore outside income tax). The capital-versus-revenue determination, taught in the income-tax stream, is therefore the gateway question that decides which tax applies.

A second foundational idea is that CGT, like income tax, is source-based, not residence-based. The gross capital amount is built only from disposals "from a source within Zimbabwe". A non-resident who sells Zimbabwean immovable property is within the charge; a Zimbabwean resident who sells foreign land generally is not (subject to deemed-source rules and the special Section 30B mining charge). This mirrors the source basis of the income tax and is why residence and source doctrine carries over directly into CGT.

A third idea: CGT is a transactional, realisation-based tax. It does not tax the mere appreciation of an asset year by year (there is no "mark to market"); it taxes the gain only when the asset is disposed of — sold, or deemed to be sold under Section 8(2). A person can watch a building double in value over a decade and owe no CGT until the moment of disposal. This realisation principle shapes everything: the timing rules, the suspensive-sale spreading rules, the deemed-disposal rules on death, donation and non-sale transfers, and the inflation allowance that recognises that part of a long-held asset's "gain" is merely currency erosion.

Where this lesson sits: it is the foundation of the CGT stream. It assumes the income-tax lessons on gross income (Section 8), capital versus revenue receipts, and residence and source, and it underpins every subsequent CGT lesson — specified assets, disposal, calculation, deductions, exemptions, the special rules, withholding, administration, and the cross-border and case-law lessons. It is heavily examinable because every CGT problem starts by locating the transaction within this framework: Is there a specified asset? Is there a disposal from a Zimbabwean source? Is the amount capital (CGT) or income (income tax)? Which year of assessment? What is the gain, and at what rate?

The Act is organised into Parts. Knowing the skeleton lets a practitioner find any rule quickly.

Part I — Preliminary (Sections 1–2)

Section 1 gives the short title. Section 2 is the interpretation section and is doing far more work than its modest number suggests. It defines the core terms:

• "specified asset" means (a) immovable property; (b) any marketable security; or (c) any right or title to property (tangible or intangible) registered or required to be registered under the Mines and Minerals Act [Chapter 21:05], the Patents Act, the Trade Marks Act, the Industrial Designs Act, the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, the Brands Act, the Geographical Indications Act, or the Integrated Circuit Layout-Designs Act. Paragraph (c) was substituted by the Finance Act 2 of 2017 (backdated to 1 January 2017) to capture the full range of registrable intellectual-property rights.
• "marketable security" means any bond capable of being sold in a share market or exchange, or any debenture, share or stock, or any right by reason of participation in a unit trust — whether or not capable of being sold on an exchange.
• "share" includes a member's interest in a private business corporation (PBC).
• "deed of sale", "assessed capital loss", "approved employee housing trust fund", "tax" (tax leviable under this Act), and crucially "Taxes Act" (defined to mean the Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06]).

Section 2(2) is the great borrowing clause: an expression defined in Sections 2(1), 2A and 2B of the Taxes Act in relation to gross income, income, taxable income, assessments or returns carries the same meaning in the CGT Act in relation to the gross capital amount, capital amount or capital gain — unless otherwise defined in the CGT Act. Section 2(3) supplies two deeming rules used throughout the rollover provisions: (a) a company is under the control of an individual if the majority of voting rights across all share classes is controlled, directly or indirectly, by the individual; and (b) an individual and his nominee are deemed to be one individual. Section 2(4) extends Part IIIA definitions across the Act.

Part II — Administration (Sections 3–5)

Section 3 imports the Taxes Act's delegation machinery (the Commissioner-General may delegate functions). Sections 4 and 5 are repealed (by the Revenue Authority Act and the Finance Act 27/2001 respectively).

Part III — Capital Gains Tax (Sections 6–22)

This is the heart of the Act:

• Section 6 — the charge (above).
• Section 7 — calculation in accordance with the Finance Act, "subject to section twenty-one".
• Section 8 — interpretation: the gross capital amount / capital amount / capital gain funnel, and the Section 8(2) deemed-sale rules (non-sale disposal at fair market price; expropriation; court-ordered sale; maturity/redemption; transfer of rights under a deed of sale; transfer of rights in a stand; relinquishment of a condominium interest).
• Section 9 — when a capital amount is deemed to accrue (importing Section 10(1)–(2) of the Taxes Act mutatis mutandis).
• Section 10 — exemptions (paragraphs (a)–(r)).
• Section 11 — deductions (acquisition cost, improvements, inflation allowance, selling costs, bad debts, taxed appeal costs, de-minimis relief; assessed capital loss carry-forward in Section 11(3)).
• Section 12 — no deductions on assets whose sale is exempt.
• Sections 13–22 — the Special Rules (damage/destruction; fair market price; transfers between same-control companies, spouses, and individual-to-controlled-company; suspensive and credit sales; cost reductions; principal private residence rollover; substitution of business property) — surveyed in the dedicated Special Rules lesson.

Part IIIA — Capital Gains Withholding Tax (Sections 22A–22L)

A self-contained withholding regime (inserted progressively, principally by Act 1/2014): depositaries (conveyancers, estate agents, building societies, the Sheriff, stockbrokers) and agents must withhold CGT on the sale of immovable property and marketable securities and remit it to ZIMRA, with the withheld amount credited against the seller's final CGT (Section 22J). Withholding is the subject of its own lesson.

Parts IV–VIII — the administrative borrowings (Sections 23–31)

• Part IV (Section 23) — returns and assessments: imports Sections 37–52 (plus Part VIIIA and Section 97B) of the Taxes Act mutatis mutandis (publication and furnishing of returns, estimated assessments, additional/reduced/amended assessments, interest calculation).
• Part V (Section 24) — representative taxpayers: imports Sections 53–61 of the Taxes Act (representative taxpayers, agents, public officers of companies).
• Part VI (Section 25) — objections and appeals: a taxpayer aggrieved by an assessment or by specified Commissioner decisions may object within 30 days; Sections 62–70 of the Taxes Act then govern the objection and appeal (to the Special Court / Fiscal Appeal Court and onward).
• Part VII (Section 26) — payment and recovery: tax is due within 30 days of accrual on a suspensive (Section 18) or credit (Section 19) sale, or otherwise within 30 days of formal transfer of title; interest runs on late payment at a rate fixed by the Minister; the Commissioner has the Taxes Act's collection powers.
• Part VIII (Sections 27–31) — general: Section 27 (offences, evidence, forms — Sections 81–90 of the Taxes Act); Section 28 (double-taxation relief — Section 91 of the Taxes Act, the gateway for DTAs); Section 29 (tax avoidance — the general anti-avoidance rule in Section 98 of the Taxes Act applies to CGT); Section 30 (transitional rule for married women's gains pre-1988); Section 30A (no registration of transfer without a ZIMRA CGT certificate); Section 30B (special CGT on offshore acquisitions of mining title, from 1 January 2024); Section 31 (returns by the Registrar of Deeds, financial institutions and others).

The Finance Act [Chapter 23:04] — the rate statute

Because Section 7 of the CGT Act calculates tax "in accordance with the Finance Act", the rates live in the Finance Act. Its Section 38 fixes: 5% of the gross capital amount for a specified asset acquired before 22 February 2019; 20% of the capital gain for an asset acquired on or after 22 February 2019. Its Section 39 fixes the withholding rates (1% listed securities, 15% immovable property, 5% unlisted securities), and Section 39A governs payment of CGT in foreign currency. The threshold date of 22 February 2019 was inserted by the Finance Act 7 of 2021 and supersedes the older "1 February 2009" line.

C.1 The Section 8 funnel, term by term

The computation of CGT is a funnel that narrows proceeds into a taxable gain. Each stage is a defined term in Section 8(1).

Stage 1 — Gross capital amount. "The total amount received by or accrued to or in favour of a person … in any year of assessment from a source within Zimbabwe from the sale on or after 1 August 1981 of specified assets, excluding any amount … proved by the taxpayer to constitute 'gross income' as defined in Section 8(1) of the Taxes Act, and includes any amount allowed to be deducted in terms of Section 11(2) which has been recovered or recouped." Unpack this: (i) it is proceeds, not gain; (ii) it requires a Zimbabwean source; (iii) it requires a sale (or deemed sale under Section 8(2)) of a specified asset; (iv) it excludes amounts proved to be gross income (the capital/revenue hinge); and (v) it includes recoupments of previously deducted amounts. A proviso pulls back into the gross capital amount certain receipts of the bodies in paragraph 2(a),(c),(f) of the Third Schedule to the Taxes Act even though they would be gross income.

Stage 2 — Capital amount. "The amount remaining of the gross capital amount … after deducting … any amounts exempt from capital gains tax under this Act." So the capital amount is the gross capital amount less Section 10 exemptions.

Stage 3 — Capital gain. "The amount remaining, after deducting from the capital amount … all the amounts allowed to be deducted from a capital amount under this Act." So the capital gain is the capital amount less Section 11 deductions (acquisition cost, improvements, inflation allowance, selling costs, etc.).

The rate then applies: for post-22-Feb-2019 assets, 20% of the capital gain; for pre-22-Feb-2019 assets, 5% of the gross capital amount (note: for pre-2019 assets the rate is applied to the gross figure, bypassing the Section 11 deductions entirely — an important structural quirk).

C.2 The deemed-sale rules (Section 8(2))

CGT is a realisation tax, so the Act must define when a "sale" occurs even where no ordinary sale takes place. Section 8(2) deems a sale in the following cases: (b) any disposal otherwise than by way of sale — deemed sold at fair market price at the time of disposal (the foundation of donations, distributions, and other gratuitous transfers being within CGT — R (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 19-HH-792); (c) expropriation — deemed sold for the compensation amount (with a carve-out for Global Compensation Deed beneficiaries); (d) a court-ordered sale — proceeds deemed to accrue to the person on whose behalf it was sold; (e) maturity or redemption of a specified asset — deemed sold at that amount; (f) transfer of rights under a deed of sale — deemed sale at the amount received for the transfer; (g) transfer of rights in a residential, commercial or industrial stand (registered or not) — deemed sale; (h) relinquishment of a condominium membership interest — deemed sale. These deeming rules ensure that economic disposals cannot escape CGT merely by avoiding the form of a sale.

C.3 The borrowing from the Taxes Act, and why it matters

The CGT Act is deliberately thin on administration because it borrows the Income Tax Act's machinery. This has three practical consequences a student must internalise:

1. Definitions flow across. Under Section 2(2), terms like "person", "taxpayer", "company", "trustee", "year of assessment", "assessment" and "return" mean in the CGT Act what they mean in the Income Tax Act. There is no separate CGT definition of "person" — it is the income-tax definition.
2. Procedure flows across. Returns, assessments (including estimated, additional, reduced and amended assessments), representative-taxpayer rules, public-officer rules, offences, evidence and the interest-on-overdue-tax rules are all the income-tax provisions, applied mutatis mutandis. A CGT assessment is challenged, and CGT offences prosecuted, using the income-tax scaffolding.
3. Anti-avoidance and double-tax relief flow across. The general anti-avoidance rule in Section 98 of the Taxes Act applies to CGT via Section 29, so artificial or fictitious transactions designed to avoid CGT can be reconstructed by the Commissioner. Double-taxation relief (and therefore the application of DTAs) reaches CGT via Section 28 importing Section 91 of the Taxes Act.

The relationship is therefore not "two unrelated taxes" but "one administrative system charging two complementary bases". This is why a CGT practitioner must know the Income Tax Act's administrative provisions cold.

C.4 Year of assessment, person, and the source gateway

CGT is charged per year of assessment (Section 6), using the income-tax meaning of "year of assessment". It is charged on "any person" — the income-tax meaning of "person", which includes individuals, companies, trusts and deceased/insolvent estates (a partnership is transparent: the partners, not the firm, are the taxpayers). And it reaches only Zimbabwean-source disposals. These three coordinates — who, when, where — are fixed by borrowing from the Income Tax Act, and they frame every CGT problem.

D.1 Individuals

The capital/revenue gateway in action. Mr Moyo sells a residential stand in Bulawayo that he bought as a long-term investment, realising USD 40,000 over cost. Is this CGT or income tax? Because the stand was held as an investment (capital), the gain is of a capital nature — excluded from gross income under Section 8 of the Income Tax Act and therefore caught by the CGT Act's gross capital amount (Section 8(1)). It is taxed under CGT, not income tax. Had Mr Moyo been a land dealer buying and selling stands as a trade, the same gain would be income and excluded from the gross capital amount (proved to be gross income). The classification decides the tax. This is the single most common individual-level application of the legal framework.

The over-55 reliefs. An individual aged 56 sells his principal private residence; under Section 10(l) the proceeds are exempt from CGT. The same individual sells listed shares; under Section 10(m) the first US$ 1,800 of marketable-security proceeds in the year is exempt. The framework's exemptions deliver targeted relief to older taxpayers.

D.2 SMEs and partnerships

Partnership transparency. A two-partner trading partnership in Gweru sells its business premises. Because a partnership is transparent for tax (the income-tax meaning of "person" does not treat the firm as a separate taxpayer), the capital gain accrues to the partners in their profit-sharing ratio, and each partner is assessed to CGT on his share. The framework's borrowing of the income-tax definition of "person" thus determines who files and who pays.

Recoupment feeding back into the gross capital amount. An SME that earlier deducted a cost under Section 11(2) and later recovers part of it must bring the recouped amount back into its gross capital amount (Section 8(1)) — a direct application of the funnel's "includes any amount … recovered or recouped" wording.

D.3 Large corporates and multinationals

DTA relief via Section 28. A South African company disposes of Zimbabwean immovable property. The disposal is Zimbabwean-source and within CGT, but the company may claim relief under the Zimbabwe–South Africa DTA, which reaches CGT through Section 28 (importing Section 91 of the Taxes Act). Cross-border CGT is its own lesson; the framework point is that the DTA gateway for CGT is Section 28.

Anti-avoidance via Section 29. A corporate group attempts to strip value out of a Zimbabwean asset through an artificial series of transactions to reduce the capital gain. The Commissioner can invoke the general anti-avoidance rule (Section 98 of the Taxes Act) through Section 29 to disregard the artificial steps and assess the true gain. The framework imports the income tax's full anti-avoidance armoury.

Old Mutual Zimbabwe Ltd v Commissioner-General of ZIMRA & ZIMRA 16-HH-143 (High Court). Cited against the "gross capital amount" definition in Section 8(1). The court held that proceeds of shares sold by employees (to meet PAYE obligations under an Indigenisation Employees Share Trust scheme) constitute an amount liable for CGT. The case illustrates the capital/revenue boundary at the heart of the framework: the determination of whether a receipt is gross income (excluded) or a gross capital amount (included) decides the tax head, and the breadth of "gross capital amount" can pull in receipts taxpayers assume are outside CGT.

Sabeta M v Commissioner General: ZIMRA 12-HH-079 (High Court). Cited against Section 7. ZIMRA is not permitted to refuse to assess and issue a CGT certificate once the tax is paid. The case anchors the link between Section 7 (calculation) and Section 30A (clearance): once the tax computed under Section 7 and the Finance Act rate is paid, the taxpayer is entitled to the certificate that unlocks registration of transfer.

Sommer Ranching (Pvt) Ltd v COT 99-SC-065 (Supreme Court). Cited against Section 14 and again in the objections/appeals provision (Section 25(2)). It establishes the Commissioner's power to determine the fair market price in computing a capital gain or assessed capital loss — central to the deemed-sale rule in Section 8(2)(b) and the valuation power in Section 14, both framework provisions.

R (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 19-HH-792 (High Court). Cited against Section 8(2)(b). It concerns the deemed sale at fair market price where a specified asset is disposed of otherwise than by way of sale — the framework rule that brings donations and other gratuitous transfers within CGT.

Consistent with this skill's grounding rules, each case is drawn from the citations printed in the source Capital Gains Tax Act [Chapter 23:01] as at 27 May 2025. Where the framework rests purely on statute (for example, the precise architecture of the borrowing provisions in Sections 23–29), no case has been invented to dress up the point.

1. Looking for the rate in the CGT Act. The CGT Act contains no rate. Section 7 sends you to the Finance Act [Chapter 23:04], Section 38. Students who quote a rate "from the CGT Act" are citing the wrong statute.

2. Quoting the wrong rate threshold date. The dividing line between the 5%-of-gross and 20%-of-gain bases is 22 February 2019 (Finance Act 7/2021), not the superseded "1 February 2009". Using the old date produces the wrong basis and rate.

3. Treating CGT and income tax as overlapping. They are mutually exclusive at the level of a receipt: an amount proved to be gross income is excluded from the gross capital amount (Section 8(1)). Double-counting the same receipt under both heads is wrong; so is assuming a gain is "tax-free" merely because it is capital — it is capital and therefore within CGT.

4. Forgetting CGT is source-based. Only Zimbabwean-source disposals build the gross capital amount. Students who tax a resident's purely foreign-source disposal under the ordinary charge (ignoring source) misapply Section 8(1) — subject to deemed-source and the special Section 30B mining charge.

5. Missing the deemed-sale rules (Section 8(2)). A donation, distribution, expropriation, redemption or non-sale transfer is deemed a sale (usually at fair market price). Treating "no sale" as "no CGT" is a classic error.

6. Ignoring the borrowing from the Taxes Act. The administrative answers (how to object, how assessments work, who is a representative taxpayer, what anti-avoidance applies) are not in the CGT Act in full — they are imported from the Income Tax Act. Looking only at the CGT Act for procedure leaves a practitioner half-informed.

7. Overlooking the 30-day clocks. Objection is within 30 days (Section 25); payment is within 30 days of accrual/transfer (Section 26). These short windows are easy to miss and unforgiving.

8. Forgetting Section 30A clearance. No transfer of immovable property or shares is registered without a ZIMRA CGT certificate. A correct computation that is not certified still cannot pass transfer.

Work through the questions one at a time. Choose an answer and it is graded immediately, with an explanation and the provision it comes from. Your progress is saved, so you can stop and resume.

• CGT is a separate, source-based, realisation tax imposed by the Capital Gains Tax Act [Chapter 23:01] (in force from 1 August 1981); the charge is Section 6, on the capital gain from disposal of a specified asset from a Zimbabwean source.
• CGT complements the income tax by catching gains that are "of a capital nature" and therefore excluded from gross income. An amount proved to be gross income is excluded from the gross capital amount (Section 8(1)) — the two bases are mutually exclusive at the level of any receipt; the taxpayer bears the burden of proving the classification.
• The funnel (Section 8(1)): gross capital amount (proceeds, less amounts proved to be gross income) → capital amount (less Section 10 exemptions) → capital gain (less Section 11 deductions).
• Section 8(2) deems a sale on non-sale disposals (at fair market price), expropriation, court-ordered sales, maturity/redemption, transfers of deed-of-sale rights, stand rights, and condominium relinquishments — so economic disposals cannot escape CGT by avoiding the form of a sale.
• The Act is architecturally dependent on the Income Tax Act ("Taxes Act"): Section 2(2) borrows its definitions; Sections 23, 24, 27, 28, 29 import its machinery for returns/assessments, representative taxpayers, offences/evidence, double-tax relief (DTAs), and the general anti-avoidance rule (Section 98).
• Rates are in the Finance Act [Chapter 23:04], Section 38: 5% of the gross capital amount for pre-22 February 2019 assets; 20% of the capital gain for assets on/after that date. The threshold is 22 February 2019 (Finance Act 7/2021), not "1 February 2009".
• Exemptions are in Section 10 (a)–(r): executor's realisations, certain government/statutory bonds, over-55 PPR sales (10(l)), first US$ 1,800 of over-55 marketable-security proceeds (10(m)), Victoria Falls Stock Exchange listed securities (10(r)), and more.
• Administration: objection within 30 days (Section 25 → Taxes Act Sections 62–70); payment within 30 days of accrual/transfer (Section 26); no registration of transfer without a ZIMRA CGT certificate (Section 30A); withholding in Part IIIA; special CGT on offshore mining-title acquisitions in Section 30B (from 1 January 2024).
• Every CGT problem is framed by the same coordinates: who (the Taxes Act meaning of "person"), when (year of assessment), where (Zimbabwean source), what (specified asset and capital, not income), how much (the funnel), and at what rate (Finance Act).

Table 1 — Structure of the Capital Gains Tax Act [Chapter 23:01]

Table 2 — CGT vs Income Tax (the complementary bases)

Table 3 — The Section 8(1) funnel

Diagram 1 — Locating a transaction in the CGT framework

flowchart TD
 A[Receipt or disposal] --> B{Specified asset? Section 2}
 B -->|No| C[Outside CGT]
 B -->|Yes| D{Sale or deemed sale? Section 8 2}
 D -->|No disposal| C
 D -->|Yes| E{Source within Zimbabwe? Section 8 1}
 E -->|No| F[Outside the charge: consider deemed source / Section 30B mining]
 E -->|Yes| G{Proved to be gross income?}
 G -->|Yes| H[Taxed under Income Tax Act, excluded from CGT]
 G -->|No| I[Within CGT: build gross capital amount]
 I --> J[Less Section 10 exemptions = capital amount]
 J --> K[Less Section 11 deductions = capital gain]
 K --> L{Acquired before 22 Feb 2019?}
 L -->|Yes| M[5% of gross capital amount]
 L -->|No| N[20% of capital gain]

Diagram 2 — How the CGT Act borrows from the Taxes Act

flowchart LR
 A[Capital Gains Tax Act 23:01] --> B[Section 2 2 definitions]
 A --> C[Section 23 returns and assessments]
 A --> D[Section 24 representative taxpayers]
 A --> E[Section 27 offences and evidence]
 A --> F[Section 28 double tax relief and DTAs]
 A --> G[Section 29 anti-avoidance]
 B --> H[Income Tax Act 23:06 the Taxes Act]
 C --> H
 D --> H
 E --> H
 F --> H
 G --> H
 A --> I[Section 7 calculation] --> J[Finance Act 23:04 Section 38 rates]

Statutes & sections

• Capital Gains Tax Act [Chapter 23:01] — Section 1 (title), Section 2 (interpretation: specified asset, marketable security, share, deed of sale, Taxes Act; Section 2(2) borrowing of Taxes Act definitions; Section 2(3) control & nominee), Section 3 (delegation), Section 6 (charge), Section 7 (calculation per Finance Act, subject to Section 21), Section 8 (gross capital amount / capital amount / capital gain; Section 8(2) deemed sales), Section 9 (accrual; imports Taxes Act Section 10), Section 10 (exemptions (a)–(r)), Section 11 (deductions), Section 12 (no deduction on exempt sales), Sections 13–22 (Special Rules), Sections 22A–22L (Part IIIA withholding), Section 23 (returns/assessments → Taxes Act Sections 37–52), Section 24 (representative taxpayers → Sections 53–61), Section 25 (objections/appeals; 30 days → Sections 62–70), Section 26 (payment within 30 days; interest), Section 27 (offences/evidence → Sections 81–90), Section 28 (double-tax relief → Section 91), Section 29 (anti-avoidance → Section 98), Section 30 (married-women transitional), Section 30A (clearance certificate), Section 30B (special mining CGT, from 1 Jan 2024), Section 31 (Registrar returns).
• Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] ("Taxes Act") — Section 8 (gross income; "of a capital nature" exclusion — the CGT hinge), and the administrative provisions imported by CGT Act Sections 23–29 (Sections 37–70, 81–91, 98).
• Finance Act [Chapter 23:04] — Section 38 (CGT rates: 5% of gross capital amount pre-22 Feb 2019; 20% of capital gain on/after 22 Feb 2019 — threshold inserted by Finance Act 7/2021), Section 39 (withholding rates), Section 39A (payment in foreign currency).
• Registrable-rights statutes referenced in the "specified asset" definition — Mines and Minerals Act [Chapter 21:05], Patents, Trade Marks, Industrial Designs, Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, Brands, Geographical Indications, and Integrated Circuit Layout-Designs Acts.

Case law

• Old Mutual Zimbabwe Ltd v Commissioner-General of ZIMRA & ZIMRA 16-HH-143 (High Court) — breadth of "gross capital amount"; employee-share-trust proceeds liable for CGT (Section 8(1)).
• Sabeta M v Commissioner General: ZIMRA 12-HH-079 (High Court) — ZIMRA must assess and issue a CGT certificate once tax is paid (Section 7; cf. Section 30A).
• Sommer Ranching (Pvt) Ltd v COT 99-SC-065 (Supreme Court) — Commissioner's power to determine fair market price (Sections 8(2)(b), 14; cited in Section 25(2)).
• R (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 19-HH-792 (High Court) — deemed sale at fair market price on disposal otherwise than by sale (Section 8(2)(b)).

ZIMRA guidance

• Comprehensive Guide to Form CGT 1 — ZIMRA External Guide — administrative layer for the CGT return, the computation funnel, and clearance.
• Comprehensive Map of Zimbabwe Tax Legislation — topic-to-section index used to locate the governing provisions and the CGT–Income Tax interaction.

DTAs / international

• Double-taxation relief reaches CGT via Section 28 (importing Section 91 of the Taxes Act); specific DTAs are addressed in the Cross-Border CGT lesson.