This lesson teaches the act that every other lesson in this course has been building towards: moving money to ZIMRA. The Self-Service Portal (SSP) houses this in the Payments module, whose New Payment page allows the taxpayer to "pay tax liabilities online by credit card or via E-Banking", with the companion E-Banking page listing the banks that offer the e-banking service for SSP payments. Those two sentences are the whole of the procedural source — the official online help was unreachable this run, so every screen-level specific beyond them carries a verification flag — but the law of payment is rich, fully confirmed, and is what this lesson walks clause by clause.

The master clause is Section 71(1) of the Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06]: tax "shall become due and payable on such date and shall be paid on or before such days and at such places as are fixed or prescribed by or under this Act", in one sum or in instalments as the Commissioner determines — with a charming proviso preserving the taxpayer's "right to pay his tax through the post" (Mayor Logistics (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 14-CC-007). Section 71(2) then makes interest automatic on anything unpaid after the due date, at the rate fixed by statutory instrument (the Income Tax (Rate of Interest) Notice, SI 212 of 2022), softened only by a proviso letting the Commissioner extend time without charging interest "in special circumstances" (MR Bank Ltd v ZIMRA 19-HH-779). Section 71(3) extends the same automatic interest to withheld taxes payable under the Schedules (PAYE under the Thirteenth, the REV 5 withholding family under the others).

The payment channel has its own statute: Section 4B of the Finance Act [Chapter 23:04] (inserted by Finance (No. 2) Act 10 of 2022). Where the Commissioner-General holds an account with a bank — an "approved financial intermediary" — the taxpayer "may use that intermediary to make payment of any taxes, duties, fees, levies, charges, penalties, fines or any other moneys due... in terms of any revenue Act". The intermediary must credit the Consolidated Revenue Fund within 24 hours of the payment (shortened from 48 hours by Act 7 of 2024, with effect from the year of assessment beginning 1 January 2025), failing which the intermediary — not the taxpayer — is liable to the Commissioner-General for interest at 15% on United States dollar amounts or the bank policy rate plus 5% on local-currency amounts. This is the legal skeleton under the SSP's E-Banking integration, and it is why a taxpayer who pays an approved bank in time has done what the law asks even if the money arrives at ZIMRA a day later.

The currency of payment is governed by VAT Act [Chapter 23:12] Section 38 — walked in full in this lesson because it is the most detailed "manner of payment" provision in Zimbabwean tax law. Section 38(1) requires the tax to be "paid in full within the time allowed". Section 38(4) requires an operator who receives tax in foreign currency to pay the Commissioner in foreign currency (Delta Beverages (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-HH-577; Inamo Investments (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-SC-096), and Section 38(4a) pairs the currencies precisely: price paid in foreign currency → tax in that foreign currency; price paid in local legal tender → tax in local tender or, at the operator's option, foreign currency. Breach of Section 38(4a) attracts the Section 38A civil penalty — an assessment of double the tax, payable in the foreign currency concerned. Sections 38(5)–(9) sweep in coupons and tokens, a deeming power against falsified books, the Commissioner's right to demand the United States dollar equivalent of any other foreign currency, and the rule that forex overpayments are refunded in forex. On the income tax side, Section 37AA makes the United States dollar the currency of account for foreign-currency income and prescribes the conversion rates (quarterly average auction rate for QPD payers; a binding annual election otherwise).

Finally, the destination. As established in the lesson on the Single Account, a payment made through New Payment is not posted to the assessment you had in mind — it lands in the Single Account and ZIMRA's allocation engine applies it oldest debt first within the tax type, then by tax-type priority, with USD and ZiG ledgers never netting. Paying correctly therefore means paying the right amount, in the right currency, through the right channel, by the right date, into a clean account — and then verifying the landing through Payment History and the Single Account Transactions page. This lesson builds that discipline into a repeatable payment routine.

Everything in this course so far has been about information: registering identities, filing returns, reading balances. This lesson is about the only step ZIMRA ultimately cares about — payment. A return tells the Commissioner what you owe; a payment extinguishes it. Between those two moments sits every consequence engine we have met: automatic interest under Section 71(2), the VAT 100% penalty under Section 39, the compliance grid behind the ITF 263, and the Section 80 30% withholding bleed that follows a lapsed clearance.

Three features make payment in TaRMS different from writing a cheque to a creditor, and each is a recurring theme of this lesson:

1. Payment and allocation are separated. You do not pay "the March VAT assessment". You pay into the Single Account, and the system allocates. The skill of paying well is therefore inseparable from the skill of reading the account before and after (the Balances lesson).
2. Currency is substantive law, not preference. Whether you owe USD or ZiG is fixed by Section 38(4)–(4a) of the VAT Act and Section 37AA of the Income Tax Act, by reference to the currency in which you were paid. Tendering the wrong currency is not a rounding problem — it is non-payment of that debt, with a double-tax civil penalty waiting on the VAT side.
3. The channel has its own statute. Since 2022, the bank you pay through is an "approved financial intermediary" under Finance Act Section 4B, with a 24-hour statutory remittance duty and its own interest liability for delay. Knowing where the taxpayer's duty ends and the bank's begins matters on every deadline day.

Practical importance is obvious; examinability is high because payment questions braid together due-date law (Section 71, Section 72, the Thirteenth Schedule, VAT Section 28), currency law (Section 37AA, VAT Section 38), and consequence law (interest, penalties, clearance). ZIMRA audit interest concentrates on the currency split — Section 38(7) gives the Commissioner a deeming power against operators whose books understate forex receipts — and on payments that taxpayers believe they made but never traced to the ledger.

Section 71 of the Income Tax Act — when and where

Section 71(1) is the master clause: tax becomes due and payable on the date fixed or prescribed by or under the Act (or, where none is fixed, as notified by the Commissioner), "and may be paid in 1 sum or in instalments of equal or varying amounts as may be determined by the Commissioner, having regard to the circumstances of the case". The proviso preserves the taxpayer's "right to pay his tax through the post" — a legacy of paper remittances that survives as a reminder that the method of payment has always been the taxpayer's choice within the Commissioner's framework. The Constitutional Court's decision in Mayor Logistics (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 14-CC-007 is annotated to this section in the source Act.

The instalment limb of Section 71(1) is the statutory root of the instalment plans managed in the SSP's Debt Management module (covered fully in the E-Agreements lesson): an instalment arrangement is the Commissioner exercising this very discretion.

Section 71(2) makes interest automatic: if tax is not paid by the fixed date, "interest, calculated at a rate to be fixed by the Minister, by statutory instrument, shall be payable on so much of the tax... as from time to time remains unpaid", running from the due date until the tax "is paid in full" (Man Ltd v ZIMRA 20-HH-078 annotated). The current rate instrument is the Income Tax (Rate of Interest) Notice 2022, SI 212 of 2022 (gazetted 19 December 2022, backdated to 1 December 2022).

The proviso to Section 71(2) is the only mercy in the section: "in special circumstances the Commissioner may extend the time for payment of the tax without charging interest" (MR Bank Ltd v ZIMRA 19-HH-779 annotated). Note what this is not: it is not a general power to waive interest already accrued; it is a power to extend time prospectively, in special circumstances, interest-free. A taxpayer who foresees difficulty should invoke it before the due date.

Section 71(3) declares "for the avoidance of doubt" that the same automatic interest applies where a person responsible for paying over tax under the Ninth, Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth or Eighteenth Schedules fails to pay within the Schedule's time — interest runs "on the day next following the last day provided in the Schedule concerned". That is the interest engine behind late PAYE (Thirteenth Schedule) and the REV 5 withholding family.

The due-date catalogue (established, restated for payment purposes)

The deadlines themselves were walked in earlier lessons; the payment lesson needs only the calendar they produce:

Two confirmed traps from earlier lessons bear repeating on a payments page: the circulating Zimbabwe Tax Compliance Calendar still shows the 25th for VAT — the legislation prevails (15th) — and a Section 37A(4) extension of time to file is "subject to Section 71", so it never extends the time to pay.

Finance Act Section 4B — the channel statute

Inserted by Finance (No. 2) Act 10 of 2022 and tightened by Act 7 of 2024, Section 4B of the Finance Act [Chapter 23:04] regulates payment through banks:

• Definitions (Section 4B(1)): a "financial intermediary" is "any banking or other financial institution registered in terms of the Banking Act [Chapter 24:20]"; "revenue" is an amount paid by a taxpayer through an approved intermediary; "revenue Act" means any Act in the First Schedule to the Revenue Authority Act [Chapter 23:11] (so the section covers income tax, VAT, capital gains tax, customs — everything ZIMRA collects); the "bank policy rate" definition was inserted by Act 7 of 2024 w.e.f. the year of assessment beginning 1 January 2025.
• The channel (Section 4B(2)): "If the Commissioner-General has an account with a financial intermediary ('approved financial intermediary'), a taxpayer may use that intermediary to make payment of any taxes, duties, fees, levies, charges, penalties, fines or any other moneys due from the taxpayer in terms of any revenue Act." This is the legal description of every bank on the SSP's E-Banking list: a bank holding a Commissioner-General account, through which the taxpayer is statutorily entitled to pay.
• The 24-hour rule (Section 4B(3)): the approved intermediary "must remit the full amount of revenue paid by a taxpayer so that no later than 24 hours from the time of such payment the Consolidated Revenue Fund is credited with that amount". The deadline was shortened from 48 hours by Act 7 of 2024, w.e.f. the year of assessment beginning 1 January 2025.
• Intermediary interest (Section 4B(4)): an intermediary that delays "without a valid reason as determined by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority" becomes liable to the Commissioner-General for interest of 15% (United States dollar amounts) or the bank policy rate plus 5% (Zimbabwe dollar amounts) on the amount not timeously remitted. (Act 7 of 2024 also repealed the former proviso to this subsection.)

The structural point: subsection (4) places the delay liability on the intermediary. A taxpayer who paid the approved bank within time has used the statutory channel; the float risk between bank and Consolidated Revenue Fund is the bank's problem, not the taxpayer's. Keep the bank's stamped/electronic confirmation — it is the evidence that your payment predated the deadline even if the ledger credit appears later.

VAT Act Section 38 — the manner-of-payment provision, walked in full

Section 38(1): "the tax payable under this Act shall be paid in full within the time allowed by section thirteen or section twenty-eight or section twenty-nine, whichever is applicable" — Section 13 for imports, Section 28 for the ordinary VAT 7 cycle, Section 29 for special returns. Payment "in full" is the default; part-payment is non-compliance attracting Section 39 consequences (established in the back-filing lesson).

Sections 38(2)–(3) — the deposit mechanism. Where the Commissioner is satisfied that "due to circumstances beyond the control of the person liable" the tax "cannot be accurately calculated within the time allowed", he may, in his discretion and on conditions, "agree to accept a payment of a deposit... of an amount equal to the estimated liability". The deposit "shall be deemed to be a provisional payment"; when the liability is finally determined, "any amount paid in excess shall be refundable... and any amount short-paid shall be recoverable". This is a little-known but confirmed lifeline: a registered operator whose records are genuinely incapacitated (system failure, fire, seizure) can stop the interest clock on the bulk of the liability by depositing an estimate — it is an agreement the Commissioner may accept, so it must be sought, in writing, before the deadline.

Section 38(4) — pay in the currency you received (substituted by Act 3 of 2009; cross-reference to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act amended by Finance Act 8 of 2022 with retrospective effect from 22 February 2019). Notwithstanding the legal-tender provisions of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act [Chapter 22:15] and the Exchange Control Act [Chapter 22:05]:

• (a) an operator who "receives payment of any amount of tax in foreign currency in respect of the supply of goods or services... shall pay that amount to the Commissioner in foreign currency" — Delta Beverages (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-HH-577 and Inamo Investments (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-SC-096 are the leading annotated authorities; T (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 15-HH-285 is annotated regarding travel agents permitted under SI 142/2019;
• (b) an operator who imports goods (or is deemed by Section 12(1) to import) "shall pay any tax thereon to the Commissioner in foreign currency" (Prosperous Days Investments v ZIMRA 21-HH-024 annotated).

"Foreign currency" is defined in the subsection as "the Euro, British pound, United States dollar, South African rand, Botswana pula or any other currency denominated under the Exchange Control (General) Order, 1996 (SI 110 of 1996)".

Section 38(4a) — the precise currency pairing (inserted by Finance Act 1 of 2019 w.e.f. 1 January 2019):

• (a) price paid in a foreign currency → the operator "shall pay the amount of the tax... in that foreign currency" — note that currency, not merely a foreign currency;
• (b) price paid in "legal tender other than foreign currency" → the operator "may pay... in that legal tender or in a foreign currency".

The asymmetry is deliberate: forex receipts lock the tax into forex; local receipts give the operator the option of paying in forex. Subsection (10) supplies the definitions: "legal tender other than foreign currency" means bond notes and coins or money transferred through a (non-nostro) bank account; a "nostro foreign currency account" is an account designated under Exchange Control Directive RT/120 of 2018 holding foreign currency.

Section 38A — the civil penalty for breaching Section 38(4a) (inserted by Finance Act 1 of 2019). On becoming aware of non-compliance, the Commissioner "shall, having given the operator a prior right of reply at least seven (7) days before the service of the order, serve... notice of an assessment in terms of section thirty-one of double the amount of tax payable in the foreign currency concerned, which shall be payable in the foreign currency concerned" — the "primary Civil Penalty". An operator served with such an assessment who "fails without just cause to comply with the notice within the first 7 days of the period of 181 days" and continues in default commits an offence punishable by a fine up to level 10. Pay USD VAT in ZiG and the exposure is not the spread — it is twice the tax, in USD.

Sections 38(5)–(6) — coupons and tokens. Where an operator receives payment not in currency but in "a coupon or any instrument or token that, in the opinion of the Commissioner, is exchangeable... for foreign currency", the operator must pay tax in foreign currency on a fair valuation of the coupon or token; for commodity-denominated instruments (units of weight or volume — think fuel coupons or grain certificates), the Commissioner may gazette deemed forex values per unit.

Section 38(7) — the deeming power. Where the Commissioner has reasonable grounds to believe an operator receives tax in foreign currency and has kept or authorised false books or furnished a false return with the effect of avoiding or postponing forex payment, he "may deem that all tax received by that operator... is received in foreign currency", unless the operator proves transaction by transaction that particular tax was received in Zimbabwean currency. This reverses the practical onus and is the audit weapon behind currency-split examinations.

Section 38(8) — the USD-equivalent demand. The Commissioner "may require that any registered operator who tenders payment of tax in a foreign currency other than the United States dollar, to tender instead the equivalent amount... in United States dollars", converted at "the international cross rate of exchange... prevailing on the day the tax concerned becomes due". An operator trading in rand should expect the USD figure.

Section 38(9) — symmetry. All provisions of the Act apply to forex payment as to local payment; "in particular, section forty-four ('Refunds') shall apply so that any part of tax paid in foreign currency that is required to be refunded shall be refunded in foreign currency" (Inamo Investments 22-HH-672, on appeal 23-SC-096). This is the statutory root of the dual-currency bank-detail rule from the Changing Bank Details lesson.

Income Tax Act Section 37AA — the currency of account

For income tax, Section 37AA (inserted by Finance Act 8 of 2022 w.e.f. 1 January 2022) requires a taxpayer earning trade and investment income partly in foreign currency to render a separate return for that income, with the proviso that "the currency of account shall be the United States dollar" — other foreign currencies convert to USD "at the international cross rate of exchange on the date of the return". Section 37AA(2) directs the Commissioner to assess proportionate ZWG and USD tax according to the proportions earned, with conversion (where needed) at:

• (a) for QPD payers under Section 72 — "the average auction rate of exchange during the quarter concerned";
• (b) otherwise — a binding election between the average auction rate for the year and the other prescribed mode, applying "to all transactions and expenditures in the return for the year of assessment concerned".

The payment consequence: income tax and QPDs split into a USD leg and a ZWG leg in fixed proportions, and — per the Single Account currency segregation — each leg must be paid in its own currency. There is no "pay it all in ZiG at the day's rate" shortcut on the income tax side either.

What the SSP guide confirms about the screens

The local SSP External Guide confirms, verbatim, this much and no more about the mechanics:

• The Payments module contains seven pages: Balance, New Payment, E-Banking, Payment History, Single Account Transactions, Withdrawal, Withdrawal Application History.
• New Payment — "pay tax liabilities online by credit card or via E-Banking. The portal lists banks offering e-banking."
• E-Banking — "list of banks offering the e-banking service for SSP payments."
• The monthly close-out workflow instructs: file the P2 and REV 5 returns by the 10th and "pay all of these from Payments → New Payment".

Everything beyond that — field layout, how a payment is initiated against a head or amount, reference-number generation, card processing flow, confirmation screens — is not in the source and is flagged in section C.

The three channels

Synthesising the guide and the statutes, money reaches ZIMRA through three channels:

1. Card payment inside the SSP (New Payment page, confirmed): the taxpayer initiates an online card payment from within the portal. The mechanics of the card flow are not documented in the source.
2. E-Banking through an approved bank (New Payment + E-Banking pages, confirmed; Finance Act Section 4B): the taxpayer pays through a bank on the E-Banking list — i.e. an approved financial intermediary holding a Commissioner-General account. The bank owes the 24-hour Consolidated Revenue Fund remittance duty; the taxpayer's evidence is the bank confirmation dated within the deadline.
3. Legacy/manual channels: Section 71(1) itself preserves payment "through the post", and bank transfers made outside the e-banking integration still occur in practice. These work in law — payment is payment — but they maximise the risk of an unallocated credit: money that arrived at ZIMRA without machine-readable identity and sits unapplied while the underlying debt accrues interest. The Searching Transactions lesson's four-hop trace exists mostly for this channel.

The journey of a payment, end to end

Walk one payment through the system, step by step:

1. Quantification. The return (or assessment) fixes the amount, per head, per currency. Read the Balance page on the day of payment (balances are date-stamped; interest accrues daily) and decompose principal/penalty/interest per the Balances lesson — you are paying a residue, not a remembered figure.
2. Currency determination. Apply Section 38(4)–(4a) (VAT) or the Section 37AA proportions (income tax/QPDs): how much of this liability is a USD debt, how much a ZWG debt? Two payments, not one, if both.
3. Channel and initiation. Payments → New Payment; choose card or e-banking. Pay early enough on deadline day that the bank leg completes — Section 4B gives the bank 24 hours, but your own cut-off is the statutory due date for the payment, and prudence says do not test the boundary.
4. The statutory hop. The approved intermediary credits the Consolidated Revenue Fund within 24 hours (Section 4B(3)).
5. The landing. The credit appears in the Single Account in its currency ledger. It is not attached to "your" assessment.
6. Allocation. ZIMRA's allocation engine applies the credit oldest debt first within the tax type, then by tax-type priority (guide, confirmed; the inter-head priority order remains unpublished — established in the Single Account lesson). If an older debt exists anywhere reachable, your payment feeds it first.
7. Verification. Within a day or two: Payment History (did the payment register against the return?), Single Account Transactions (did the credit land, in the right currency?), Tax Type Report (where was it allocated?). Export and file the evidence with the bank confirmation — the six-year Section 37B/Section 57 archive.

Steps 1–2 and 7 are where professionals earn their fee; steps 3–6 are plumbing. The most common payment failure is not a failed transfer — it is a successful transfer that landed in the wrong currency ledger or was eaten by an older debt the payer never checked for.

Deadline-day discipline

Because Section 71(2) interest and the VAT Fifth Schedule interest run automatically from the day after the due date, the payment habit that survives contact with reality is: pay when you file. Section 37A(1) makes filing and payment one obligation for self-assessment; the 13th Schedule and VAT Section 28 cycles work the same way in practice. A return filed on the 10th with payment "to follow" is a liability armed and accruing.

Where full payment is genuinely impossible, the lawful softeners — all of which must be invoked before the due date — are: the Section 71(2) proviso (interest-free extension in special circumstances), a Section 71(1) instalment determination via Debt Management (the guide confirms ZIMRA "is more receptive to instalment plans for tax that is not yet overdue"), and on the VAT side the Section 38(2) deposit against an estimate where the amount cannot be accurately calculated. Silence followed by part-payment is the worst of all worlds: interest plus penalty exposure plus a compliance-grid failure at the next ITF 263 run.

Individuals: Rudo's December QPD

Rudo, a Harare consultant (established in earlier lessons), faces her fourth QPD — 35% on or before 20 December (Section 72(7)(e)). Her annual estimate of tax liable is USD 9,200, all her income being USD consultancy fees (Section 37AA: USD is the currency of account; her return is a USD return).

She pays on the 18th, not the 20th: the 20th of December is a date on which Zimbabwean banking queues are not where a deadline should be tested. Had she paid the 20th and the bank credited the CRF on the 21st, Section 4B(3)–(4) places the delay on the bank — her dated confirmation shows payment within time — but she has no appetite for arguing the point. Verification on the 22nd: Payment History shows the instalment; Tax Type Report shows allocation to provisional tax, current period (nothing older to eat it).

SMEs: Pamberi (Pvt) Ltd's monthly payment run and the currency split

Pamberi, a VAT-registered Harare retailer, closes its January period with output and receipts split across currencies. The month's liabilities:

The VAT split is not Pamberi's choice. Of January's sales, customers paid USD on supplies carrying USD 5,600 of output tax and ZiG on supplies carrying ZWG 38,200: Section 38(4a)(a) locks the USD 5,600 into USD; Section 38(4a)(b) lets Pamberi pay the ZWG 38,200 in ZiG or USD (it pays ZiG — why surrender forex it is not obliged to?). That makes four payments in the run, two per currency per head, because the Single Account's USD and ZWG ledgers never net.

The trap Pamberi avoids: its bookkeeper, short of ZiG on the 15th, proposes paying the ZWG VAT leg's USD equivalent into the USD ledger "to be safe". Two errors at once — the option in Section 38(4a)(b) is exercised by paying in forex as forex (a USD payment of that debt), not by parking USD against a ZWG-denominated liability; and a USD credit cannot settle a ZWG debt across the segregation wall, so the ZWG VAT would stand unpaid, accruing Fifth Schedule interest, while a phantom USD credit waited for the allocation engine to find an unrelated USD debt to feed. If the option is wanted, the liability itself is discharged in USD through the New Payment flow as a USD payment — confirmed by checking the Tax Type Report shows the ZWG-period VAT settled.

Reverse scenario — the one that destroys SMEs: had Pamberi paid the USD VAT leg in ZiG at the interbank rate, Section 38(4a)(a) is breached; Section 38A entitles the Commissioner (after the 7-day right of reply) to assess double the tax — USD 11,200 — payable in USD, with a level-10 fine behind it for continued default. The spread saved is trivial against the exposure.

Large corporates: Mukonde Holdings — rand receipts, Section 38(8), and treasury control

Mukonde's export-adjacent subsidiary receives part of its takings in South African rand. For March it owes VAT of ZAR 190,000 on rand-paid supplies (Section 38(4a)(a): payable in rand) — but ZIMRA invokes Section 38(8) and requires the USD equivalent at the international cross rate prevailing on the due date. At a due-date cross rate of ZAR 18.50 = USD 1:

Treasury control points: (i) the rate date is fixed by statute — "prevailing on the day the tax concerned becomes due" — so a weakening rand between period-end and the 15th changes the USD outlay; treasury hedges the gap. (ii) Payment authority is split maker-checker (Roles lesson): the officer who computes the currency legs is not the officer who releases the e-banking instruction. (iii) Every payment in the run is traced to the Tax Type Report within 48 hours, and the group keeps a standing "unallocated credits" report — at corporate volumes, one mis-referenced transfer a quarter is the norm, and Section 4B confirmations are the audit trail that dates each payment. (iv) Because Mukonde keeps meticulous currency-split workings, the Section 38(7) deeming power holds no terror — the per-transaction proof that subsection demands is a report away.

No reported Zimbabwean case construes the SSP's New Payment screen or the e-banking integration — the channel is too young, and the legal action has been about currency and timing. Stated honestly, the authorities this lesson rests on are annotation-level markers in the source Acts, several already met in earlier lessons:

• Mayor Logistics (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 14-CC-007 — annotated to Section 71(1), the due-and-payable master clause (and met in the debt-creation lesson as the constitutional challenge in the pay-now context).
• Man Ltd v ZIMRA 20-HH-078 — annotated to Section 71(2) automatic interest.
• MR Bank Ltd v ZIMRA 19-HH-779 — annotated to the Section 71(2) proviso (interest-free extension in special circumstances).
• Redan Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-HH-637 — annotated to Section 72(2): provisional tax is paid quarterly, not at year-end; the QPD calendar is mandatory.
• Delta Beverages (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-HH-577 and Inamo Investments (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-SC-096 (on appeal from 22-HH-672) — the leading currency-matching authorities on Section 38(4): tax received in foreign currency must be paid in foreign currency, and (per Section 38(9)) forex overpayments return in forex.
• Prosperous Days Investments v ZIMRA 21-HH-024 — annotated to Section 38(4)(b): import VAT payable in foreign currency.
• T (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 15-HH-285 — annotated to Section 38(4) regarding travel agents under SI 142/2019.

The facts of these decisions are not reproduced in the source documents beyond the annotations; they are cited here as markers of where the section has been litigated, not narrated. No authority on Finance Act Section 4B is annotated in the source — the section is recent and its interest mechanism is aimed at banks, not taxpayers.

1. Paying the headline balance instead of the dated residue. Interest accrues daily (Section 71(2); VAT Fifth Schedule). A figure read last week underpays this week, leaving a sliver of principal alive that keeps compounding and will eat the front of your next payment via oldest-first allocation. Correct approach: read the Balance page (per currency) on payment day; pay the decomposed residue.
2. Wrong currency. The single most expensive mistake on this page. USD-received VAT paid in ZiG = Section 38(4a) breach = Section 38A double tax in USD. And in the other direction, a credit in the wrong ledger settles nothing across the segregation wall. Correct approach: currency legs are computed from receipts (Section 38(4a)) or assessed proportions (Section 37AA(2)) before any payment is initiated.
3. Paying into a dirty account without checking. The allocation engine, not your intention, decides where money goes. An unnoticed migrated balance or stale PAYE shortfall silently absorbs the payment; the debt you meant to pay stays alive into penalty territory. Correct approach: pre-payment balance check; clear or dispute older items first (allocation query via E-Messaging; objection via Case Management within 30 days).
4. Treating a filing extension as a payment extension. Section 37A(4) is expressly "subject to Section 71" — paperwork relief never stops the interest clock. The only interest-stoppers are the Section 71(2) proviso, an instalment determination, or (VAT) the Section 38(2) deposit — all sought before the due date.
5. Testing the deadline against bank processing. Section 4B gives the bank 24 hours to reach the Consolidated Revenue Fund, and a dated confirmation protects you — but the argument costs more than paying two days early. Correct approach: internal due dates 2–3 working days ahead of statutory ones; December QPD earlier still.
6. Paying without a verifiable landing. Manual transfers with malformed references create unallocated credits: real money, undischarged debt. Correct approach: pay through New Payment/e-banking with the system's own reference; verify in Payment History → Single Account Transactions → Tax Type Report within days; archive exports with the bank confirmation for six years (Section 37B; VAT Section 57).
7. Forgetting the VAT deadline moved. The compliance calendar in circulation still says the 25th; Section 28(1) has said the 15th since 1 January 2025. Ten phantom days of float is exactly enough to make every VAT payment late.

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.

• Section 71(1) makes tax due and payable on the prescribed date, in one sum or Commissioner-determined instalments; Section 71(2) makes interest automatic from the day after (rate per SI 212/2022), with an interest-free extension proviso for special circumstances (MR Bank); Section 71(3) extends the engine to Schedule taxes (PAYE, REV 5 family).
• Finance Act Section 4B: paying through a bank on the E-Banking list is payment through an approved financial intermediary; the bank must credit the Consolidated Revenue Fund within 24 hours (Act 7/2024) or itself owes interest (15% USD / policy rate +5% local). Keep the dated confirmation — it is your proof of timeous payment.
• VAT Section 38 is the manner-of-payment code: pay in full within Section 13/28/29 time (Section 38(1)); deposit mechanism where the amount genuinely cannot be computed (Section 38(2)–(3)); forex received → forex paid (Section 38(4), Delta, Inamo); precise pairing in Section 38(4a) — that currency for forex receipts, local-or-forex option for local receipts; Section 38A double-tax civil penalty in the forex concerned for breach; coupons valued into forex (Section 38(5)–(6)); deeming power against false books (Section 38(7)); USD-equivalent demand for other currencies at the due-date cross rate (Section 38(8)); forex refunds in forex (Section 38(9)).
• ITA Section 37AA: USD is the currency of account for forex income; tax splits into proportionate USD and ZWG legs (quarterly average auction rate for QPD payers; binding election otherwise) — each leg paid in its own currency.
• The screens confirmed: New Payment pays "by credit card or via E-Banking"; E-Banking lists the participating banks; the monthly routine pays everything "from Payments → New Payment". Screen mechanics beyond this are unverified this run.
• The discipline: dated balance per currency → currency legs computed from law, not convenience → pay 2–3 days early through the system's own reference → verify the landing (Payment History → Single Account Transactions → Tax Type Report) → archive for six years. A payment is not "made" until it is traced.
• Pay when you file — Section 37A(1) welds them for self-assessment, and every other cycle behaves the same way in consequence terms. Filing without paying merely illuminates the target.

Currency-of-payment decision table (VAT, Section 38(4)–(4a))

Channel comparison

Payment journey

flowchart TD
 A[Read dated Balance per currency] --> B[Decompose principal / penalty / interest]
 B --> C{Currency legs?}
 C -->|"forex-received VAT / Section 37AA USD leg"| D[Pay in that currency]
 C -->|local-received| E[Pay local or elect forex]
 D --> F[Payments > New Payment: card or E-Banking]
 E --> F
 F --> G[Approved bank credits CRF within 24 hrs - FA Section 4B]
 G --> H[Credit lands in Single Account ledger of that currency]
 H --> I[Allocation: oldest debt first in head, then head priority]
 I --> J{Verify in Payment History / Transactions / Tax Type Report}
 J -->|landed and allocated as intended| K[Export, archive 6 yrs with bank proof]
 J -->|missing or misallocated| L[Four-hop trace; E-Messaging allocation query / Case Mgmt]

Statutes & sections

• Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] — Section 71(1) (tax due and payable; instalments; payment by post proviso); Section 71(2) (automatic interest at SI rate; interest-free extension proviso); Section 71(3) (interest on Schedule taxes); Section 72 (provisional tax; Section 72(7) QPD instalments 10%/25%/30%/35% on 25 Mar/25 Jun/25 Sep/20 Dec); Section 37A(1) (file-and-pay within 4 months, subst FA (No. 2) 10/2022); Section 37A(4) (extension "subject to Section 71"); Section 37AA (separate forex returns; USD currency of account; conversion rates, ins FA 8/2022); Section 37B (6-year records); 13th Schedule para 3 (PAYE remittance).
• Finance Act [Chapter 23:04] — Section 4B (payment through approved financial intermediaries; 24-hour Consolidated Revenue Fund remittance (Act 7/2024); intermediary interest 15% USD / bank policy rate +5% local; ins Finance (No. 2) Act 10/2022).
• Value Added Tax Act [Chapter 23:12] — Section 38(1) (payment in full within Section 13/28/29 time); Section 38(2)–(3) (deposit on estimated liability); Section 38(4) (forex-received tax paid in forex; definition of foreign currency); Section 38(4a) (currency pairing; Section 38(10) definitions); Section 38(5)–(6) (coupons/tokens); Section 38(7) (deeming on false books); Section 38(8) (USD-equivalent demand at due-date cross rate); Section 38(9) (forex refunds in forex); Section 38A (civil penalty: double tax in the forex concerned; level-10 offence); Section 28(1) (15th-day payment deadline, FA (No. 2) 7/2024 w.e.f. 1 Jan 2025); Section 39 (penalty and interest, established); Fifth Schedule (interest, per SI 25/2025); Section 57 (records).

Case law

• Mayor Logistics (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 14-CC-007 — annotated to ITA Section 71(1).
• Man Ltd v ZIMRA 20-HH-078 — annotated to ITA Section 71(2) (automatic interest).
• MR Bank Ltd v ZIMRA 19-HH-779 — annotated to the Section 71(2) interest-free-extension proviso.
• Redan Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-HH-637 — provisional tax payable quarterly, not at year-end (Section 72).
• Delta Beverages (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-HH-577; Inamo Investments (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 23-SC-096 (a quo 22-HH-672) — VAT Section 38(4) currency matching; forex refunds in forex.
• Prosperous Days Investments v ZIMRA 21-HH-024 — import VAT in foreign currency (Section 38(4)(b)).
• T (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 15-HH-285 — Section 38(4) annotation (travel agents, SI 142/2019).

ZIMRA guidance

• Comprehensive Guide to the ZIMRA Self-Service Portal (local External Guide) — Payments module (§11: New Payment, E-Banking, Payment History, Single Account Transactions, Withdrawal pages; §11.1 Single Account allocation; §11.2 currency segregation; §19.1 monthly payment workflow). The official SSP online help (https://mytaxselfservice.zimra.co.zw/help/ssp/en/default.htm) was unreachable this run; screen-level specifics flagged.
• Income Tax (Rate of Interest) Notice 2022, SI 212 of 2022 (existence and dates per Act annotation; rate).
• SI 25 of 2025 (VAT Fifth Schedule interest, established in earlier lessons).