This lesson opens the returns arc of the TaRMS Essentials course and covers its cornerstone: the general procedure for submitting a tax return through the Self-Service Portal's Tax Return Management module — in the local SSP External Guide's words, "the single most-used module for active taxpayers". The module's five pages are confirmed from the guide: Pending Tax Returns ("every return ZIMRA expects you to submit (monthly, quarterly, annually)" — showing for each pending return the document name, year, period and submission deadline, with the document name clickable to open the blank form), Submitted Tax Returns ("search returns already filed, view, export to PDF, amend (while in Waiting for Approval status)"), E-Agreement, Old Period Documents (migrated pre-SSP history) and Drafts. The guide's six-step filing flow is likewise confirmed verbatim in substance: open the pending return → the blank form opens "with the header pre-populated from the taxpayer record" → complete the body fields, with the SSP performing "every computational subtotal automatically" → upload required attachments ("input-tax schedule for VAT 7; capital-allowance schedule for ITF 12C; transfer-pricing annexure for ITF 12C2; etc.") → Save Draft / resume from Drafts as needed → Submit, whereupon the return "moves to Waiting for Approval and is visible under Submitted Tax Returns". Later lessons take individual return types (PAYE's P2, amendments, back-filing, e-agreements, old periods) in depth; this lesson teaches the general machinery they all share.

The legal framework is the declaration spine of both Acts, every specific below confirmed from the 27 May 2025 sources. On the income tax side: Section 37 of the Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] (returns on annual public notice or on the Commissioner's written notice, ordinarily within 30 days, with the dormant-company proviso and the joint partnership return under Section 37(15)); Section 37A self-assessment (introduced by Act 12 of 2006) under which the specified taxpayers furnish a self-assessment return within four months after the year of assessment (the deadline shape set by Finance (No. 2) Act 10 of 2022 w.e.f. YA2023) and — the keystone — Section 37A(10)–(11): the furnished return is deemed to be an assessment served on the date of furnishing, the Commissioner retaining power to assess nonetheless (Section 37A(12)); Section 37AA (separate returns for foreign-currency and local-currency income — the dual-currency root of the Single Account's never-net rule); Section 37B (records for six years, in English); and Section 72 (provisional tax/QPDs — 10%, 25%, 30% and 35% on 25 March, 25 June, 25 September and 20 December). On the VAT side: Section 28(1) — every registered operator must furnish the VAT return and pay the tax "within the period ending on the 15th day of the first month commencing after the end of a tax period", a deadline shortened from the 25th day by Section 33 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 7 of 2024 w.e.f. 1 January 2025 (the source Act records the full deadline history: 5 → 10 → 15 → 20 → 25th-day variants between 2009 and 2012, now 15th); Section 28(2) — the return must be furnished for every tax period "whether or not tax is payable or a refund is due" (the nil-return rule, carrying the ZIMRA v Packers International 16-SC-028 annotation); Section 28(3) — the Commissioner's power to extend, "subject to section thirty-eight"; plus Section 29 special returns (30 days, deemed Section 7(1) supplies) and Section 30 other returns on demand (including the Section 30(2) tender-award return by the 10th of each month). PAYE remittance runs under the Thirteenth Schedule (P2 by the 10th of the following month, per the compliance calendar taught since the Introduction lesson).

Conceptually, the lesson hammers three disciplines. First, the Pending list is ZIMRA's expectation, not your opinion: it is generated from the taxpayer's registered profile (revenue heads, categories), which is why the Taxpayer Profile lesson insisted profile currency precedes everything — a wrong profile manufactures wrong expectations, and unfiled "expected" returns block the ITF 263 (→ Section 80'Section 30% bleed) however sincerely the taxpayer believes them inapplicable. Second, submission is the only act that counts: drafts discharge nothing; the return binds on Submit (Section 37(6)–(7) attribution; Section 37A(10)–(11) return-as-assessment), and the Waiting for Approval window is the system's brief amendment grace. Third, nil is a return: Section 28(2) makes the empty period filable, and the same logic runs through the income tax annual machinery — silence is default, not neutrality. Worked examples carry a Harare SME's monthly VAT 7 through the six steps against the new 15th-day deadline, compute the cost of a missed cycle, and walk a Category C seasonal trader's nil periods. Case law is honest: nothing on the SSP screens; Packers International (nil returns), the Section 37A self-assessment line (CF, DNS, IAB, Nestlé — the filed return binds and must comply with the law), and the Section 72 authorities (SZ waiver; Redan) frame the stakes. Screen specifics beyond the guide's text are flagged — the SSP online help was unreachable this run.

Everything this course has built — user accounts, taxpayer registration, revenue heads, profiles, agents, roles — exists so that, period after period, returns get filed. The return is the load-bearing document of a self-assessment system: since Act 12 of 2006 (income tax) and within the VAT design from the start, the taxpayer declares, computes and binds itself, and ZIMRA's role shifts to verification after the fact. The Administration lesson called this the declaration phase of the five-phase life-cycle; TaRMS makes it a screen with a deadline column.

Three features of the SSP design deserve a beginner's attention before any procedure:

1. The system tells you what it expects. Pre-TaRMS, knowing one's filing obligations was itself expertise — which forms, which periods, which office. The Pending Tax Returns page replaces that with a generated list: every return ZIMRA expects, each with its deadline. The page is a gift and a trap: a gift because nothing is hidden; a trap because the list is only as right as the taxpayer profile that generates it (registered heads, VAT category, employer status). Profile maintenance (Taxpayer Profile lesson) is therefore return maintenance.
2. The form computes; the taxpayer declares. The blank form opens with the header pre-populated from the taxpayer record, and "the SSP performs every computational subtotal automatically" (guide, confirmed). Arithmetic errors — once a leading cause of assessment disputes — are engineered out. What remains is the part no system can do: the inputs (figures, classifications, attachments) and the judgment (what is taxable, what is claimable). The deemings of Section 37(6)–(7) attach to exactly that residue.
3. Submission has a status life. A return is Draft → Submitted ("Waiting for Approval") → processed. Each status has different legal and practical properties: drafts discharge nothing; the Waiting for Approval window permits amendment (the subject of the Amending a Current Return lesson); processing folds the return into the Single Account and the taxpayer's compliance grid (ITF 263, Certificates lesson).

ZIMRA audit interest concentrates here for an obvious reason: returns are where money is declared or hidden. The high-frequency flags are unfiled expected returns (including nil periods), chronic last-day filing with errors, attachment gaps (the VAT 7 input-tax schedule especially), and mismatches between heads (P2 wages vs ITF 12C salary deductions). Examiners love this topic because it integrates statute, procedure and computation in one narrative — exactly what this lesson does.

B.1 Income tax: Section 37 — the classical return machinery

Section 37 (walked in the Administration lesson; key limbs restated here for the procedural frame): the Commissioner gives annual public notice of the classes of persons required to render returns, and may deliver written notices to particular persons; a person within a noticed class, or in receipt of a form or notice, must "prepare and deliver in the prescribed manner, within the period mentioned in such form or notice" the return with the required particulars (Section 37(5) context — and the return "shall be signed by the taxpayer, or by his agent duly authorized in that behalf", the agency-arc hook). The 30-day rhythm attaches to notice-driven returns; the dormant-company proviso relieves dormancy on conditions; Section 37(15) requires a joint return for a partnership (each partner answerable — the transparency principle from the Persons Liable lesson). Supporting limbs: Section 37(6) signatory cognizance, Section 37(7) attribution, Section 37(8) Commissioner-appointed return-maker on default.

B.2 Income tax: Section 37A — self-assessment, and the return that is an assessment

For specified taxpayers (the self-assessment population — in practice the registered business community), Section 37A requires furnishing "a self-assessment return in the prescribed form" by the deadline — four months after the end of the year of assessment (deadline shape per Finance (No. 2) Act 10 of 2022 w.e.f. YA2023: ITF 12C for YA2025 due by 30 April 2026), and:

• Section 37A(10)–(11): the furnished return is deemed to be an assessment served on the taxpayer on the date of furnishing. No ZIMRA officer touches it first; Submit is the assessment event. (Annotated authorities taught in the debt course: CF 18-HH-099, DNS 19-HH-722, IAB 22-HH-032, Nestlé 20-SC-290/23-HH-312 — the deemed assessment must still comply with the law; a self-assessment is not a licence to self-legislate.)
• Section 37A(12): the Commissioner may still assess (estimated/additional assessments under Sections 45–47 survive self-assessment).
• Section 37AA: where the taxpayer earns in both currencies, separate returns for foreign-currency and local-currency income — the statutory root of the dual-currency discipline (USD and ZiG ledgers "never net", Introduction lesson).
• Section 37B: records supporting returns kept six years, in English (penalty: greater of level 7 fine or 10% of taxable income, per the Administration lesson).

B.3 Income tax: Section 72 — the provisional tax overlay

The annual return is settled in arrears, so Section 72 collects during the year: Quarterly Payment Dates of 25 March (10%), 25 June (25%), 25 September (30%) and 20 December (35%) of estimated annual tax, with the 90%-accuracy margin and waiver jurisprudence (SZ 20-HH-142 — waiver under Section 72(11); Redan 23-HH-637) taught in the corporate lesson. In TaRMS the QPD interacts with the returns arc through the ITF 12B (provisional return) and the Payments module; the deemed-corporate-taxpayer regime for the unregistered (Section 25E + 38th Schedule) was covered in First-Time Registration.

B.4 VAT: Section 28 — return and payment in one breath

Confirmed verbatim from the source Act:

• Section 28(1): every registered operator shall, "within the period ending on the 15th day of the first month commencing after the end of a tax period … (a) furnish the Commissioner with a return in the prescribed form reflecting such information as may be required for the purpose of the calculation of tax in terms of section fifteen; and (b) calculate the amounts of such tax … and pay the tax payable … or calculate the amount of any refund due". Note the design: furnish, calculate, pay are one composite duty with one deadline. The source records the deadline's full legislative history — substituted by Act 5 of 2009; extended 5 → 10 days (Finance (No. 3) Act 10 of 2009 w.e.f. 1 January 2010), 10 → 15 (Act 3 of 2010 w.e.f. 1 September 2010), → 20 (Act 5 of 2010 w.e.f. 1 January 2011), → 25th day (Finance (No. 2) Act 9 of 2011 w.e.f. 1 January 2012), and shortened from the 25th day to the 15th by Section 33 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 7 of 2024 w.e.f. 1 January 2025. Old-vs-new in one line: until 31 December 2024 the VAT 7 was due by the 25th; from 1 January 2025 it is due by the 15th — ten days of working capital and preparation time gone, and any habit, checklist or local calendar still showing the 25th is now a penalty generator. (Where a tax period ends mid-month — the straddle case in the subsection — the period runs to the last day of that month.)
• Section 28(2): the return is due for every tax period "whether or not tax is payable or a refund is due" — the nil-return rule, annotated with ZIMRA v Packers International (Pvt) Ltd 16-SC-028. An empty month is a filing event.
• Section 28(3): the Commissioner "may, having regard to the circumstances of any case but subject to section thirty-eight, extend the period" for return or payment — a discretionary, case-by-case valve, not an entitlement; and the Section 38 subjection means payment machinery constrains it.
• Tax periods themselves follow the Section 27 categories (A/B bi-monthly alternates, C monthly for the large, D seasonal/special — VAT Registration lesson): the category determines how many VAT 7s the Pending list expects each year.

B.5 VAT: Sections 29–30 — special and demanded returns

Section 29: where goods are deemed supplied under Section 7(1) (sale in execution of another's goods), the seller — registered or not — must within 30 days furnish a special return (particulars per Section 29(a)(i)–(vi)) and pay the tax charged, copying the owner, both then excluding that tax from their Section 28 returns. Section 30(1): the Commissioner may require "any person, whether or not … a registered operator … on his own behalf or as an agent or trustee" to furnish further or other returns — the catch-all. Section 30(2): procurement entities (PRAZ, ministries, tender-awarding organisations) must submit a monthly return of tenders awarded and values by the 10th day after every month. The lesson's takeaway: the Pending list covers the standing expectations; Sections 29–30 duties can arise ad hoc and must be diarised manually when triggered.

B.6 PAYE and the withholding heads

The employer's P2 remittance by the 10th of the following month and the withholding-tax REV 5 series by the same rhythm were anchored in the Introduction and Certificates lessons (13th Schedule machinery; FA Section 4B'Section 24-hour remittance rule for collected amounts). They are returns in the Pending list like any other; the PAYE Return lesson (next) gives the P2 its own walkthrough, fed by the Employee Management module's Employees → Earnings → Assessment pipeline (guide, confirmed).

C.1 Step 0 — the Pending Tax Returns page as compliance radar

Open Tax Return Management → Pending Tax Returns (in Taxpayer mode, active taxpayer confirmed — the shift discipline). The page lists every expected return with document name, year, period and submission deadline (guide, confirmed). Operating doctrine:

• Reconcile the list to reality monthly. Every line should be either expected and planned or investigated. A line you do not recognise means the profile says something you forgot (a head never deregistered — Tax Type Deregistration lesson) or ZIMRA's record diverges from yours. Investigate through the profile and, where needed, Case Management — never by ignoring the line, because every unfiled expected return blocks the ITF 263 (real-time compliance check, Certificates lesson) and hence triggers the Section 80 30% bleed on receipts.
• A missing line is not absolution. The statutory duties (Sections 37/37A; Section 28) exist independently of the list's completeness; Section 25D logic generalises — system silence does not repeal the Act. If a return you know is due is not listed, file the issue, not just the return.

C.2 Steps 1–2 — open the form; trust but verify the pre-population

Click the document name; the blank form opens "with the header pre-populated from the taxpayer record" (guide, confirmed): TIN, name, period, head. Verify the header before touching the body — a wrong period or wrong taxpayer (the multi-client agent's hazard; Roles lesson) caught here costs a click; caught after Submit it costs an amendment. The header is also the live demonstration of why profile data quality matters: the form inherits the record.

C.3 Step 3 — complete the body; the subtotal engine and its limits

"The SSP performs every computational subtotal automatically" (guide, confirmed). Understand the division of labour precisely: the system adds, multiplies and carries totals; the taxpayer supplies and classifies. For a VAT 7: the operator enters output values and input values per line; the system computes the 15/115-type arithmetic and the net; but whether a supply was standard-rated, zero-rated or exempt, whether an input credit is backed by a fiscal tax invoice (the Section 2 fiscalisation definition — non-fiscal invoice kills the buyer's input tax, debt-technology lesson), and whether the figure is true — that is declaration, and Section 37(6)'s cognizance deeming (and the VAT offence/penalty machinery) sits on it. The automation removes the excuse layer: an arithmetic mistake is now almost always an input mistake wearing a calculator's clothes.

C.4 Step 4 — attachments are part of the return

The guide names the pattern: "input-tax schedule for VAT 7; capital-allowance schedule for ITF 12C; transfer-pricing annexure for ITF 12C2; etc." Treat the attachment as substantively part of the declaration: an ITF 12C claiming capital allowances without its schedule invites a query at best, a Section 46-flavoured dispute at worst; the VAT 7's input-tax schedule is the audit trail for every credit claimed. Build the attachment before opening the form; the form session then becomes transcription, not research.

C.5 Step 5 — Save Draft: useful, dangerous

Drafts let preparation span days and people (the preparer/submitter split from the Roles lesson lives here). The standing rule, third lesson running: a draft discharges nothing. No deadline stops for a draft; no compliance check counts one. The discipline: drafts are work in progress tracked on the practice's own dashboard with the deadline, never the basis of "it's done". Resume from Drafts; stale drafts (period filed by someone else, or superseded) are deleted at the quarterly sweep to prevent a wrong-version submission.

C.6 Step 6 — Submit: the legal event

On Submit the return "moves to Waiting for Approval and is visible under Submitted Tax Returns" (guide, confirmed). Stack the legal consequences at the moment of the click:

• Attribution: the return is the taxpayer's (Section 37(7)), and the submitting login's signatory is deemed cognizant of all statements (Section 37(6)) — under a credential that Section 80J(3) presumes was used with authority (Roles lesson).
• Assessment (self-assessment heads): the return is an assessment served now (Section 37A(10)–(11)); the objection clock architecture (Section 62's machinery via Case Management) and the Single Account consequences run from the filing.
• Payment coupling (VAT): Section 28(1) joins furnish-calculate-pay in one deadline — submitting the VAT 7 without paying by the 15th leaves the Section 39 penalty-and-interest machinery (debt course) running on the unpaid balance. The SSP's Payments module (New Payment) is the companion step, not an afterthought.
• Status window: while "Waiting for Approval", the return can be amended from Submitted Tax Returns (guide, confirmed) — the cheap-correction window. After processing, corrections escalate to the amendment/objection machinery (next lessons).

Timing law for the electronic act (debt-technology lesson, restated because it decides deadline disputes): under Section 80I, an electronic communication is lodged when it leaves the originator's control (Section 80I(4)) and received by ZIMRA on entry into its computer system (Section 80I(5)) — and Section 80K prescribes written fallback when systems are down. The practice rule that follows: never plan a submission for the deadline's final hours; the 15th-day VAT deadline post-2025 makes the old 25th-day cushion a memory.

C.7 The nil return and the never-skip rule

Section 28(2)'s rule — file "whether or not tax is payable or a refund is due" — generalises across the system: dormant does not mean silent (the Section 37 dormant-company proviso requires engagement, not disappearance); a no-employee month still has a P2 expectation if the PAYE head is open; a no-trade VAT period is a nil VAT 7. The cure for genuinely ended obligations is deregistration of the head (Tax Type Deregistration lesson), never non-filing: the Pending list keeps expecting until the profile changes, and each ignored line is an ITF 263 block. Packers International 16-SC-028 stands annotated on exactly this subsection as the cautionary authority.

D.1 The SME's monthly VAT 7 under the new deadline (SME)

Pamberi Hardware (Pvt) Ltd (Category C, monthly periods) runs May 2026's cycle: input-tax schedule assembled from fiscal invoices by 5 June; bookkeeper (preparer) builds the VAT 7 on 8 June — header verified, body entered, system computes net VAT payable USD 4,720; schedule uploaded; draft saved. Agent (submitter) reviews 9 June, submits 10 June; owner (payment authoriser) pays USD 4,720 via New Payment the same day; status Waiting for Approval, then processed. Deadline met with five days' margin against 15 June (Section 28(1) as amended). Contrast the 2024 habit: the same rhythm aimed at the 25th would now be five days late — on USD 4,720, the Section 39-machinery exposure (100% penalty potential plus interest at the Fifth Schedule rates as substituted by SI 25/2025 — local: bank policy + 5%; foreign currency 10%, debt course) makes the calendar update the cheapest control in the firm.

D.2 The seasonal trader's nil periods (individual/SME)

Mukai Safaris (Category D seasonal) trades April–September. Off-season months still show VAT 7 lines in Pending per its category configuration. Each is filed nil within the deadline — six clicks a year that keep the ITF 263 alive through the closed season, which is precisely when the lodge negotiates next season's contracts and cannot afford the Section 80 30% withholding on deposits from registered-taxpayer tour operators. The alternative error — "we'll explain when we reopen" — leaves six unfiled expected returns standing between the business and every clearance.

D.3 The corporate's year-end stack (large corporate)

Mashonaland Breweries Ltd (December year-end) maps its YA2025 stack: monthly P2s by the 10th and VAT 7s by the 15th throughout; QPDs 25 March/25 June/25 September/20 December (Section 72 percentages 10/25/30/35 against estimate, ITF 12B supporting); ITF 12C by 30 April 2026 (Section 37A four months) with the capital-allowance schedule, plus the ITF 12C2 transfer-pricing annexure given its foreign affiliations; and — because it earns in both currencies — the Section 37AA separate-currency returns discipline mirrored in its dual-ledger accounting. Governance: the Pending page reconciled monthly to the tax calendar by the tax manager (viewer role suffices), submission concentrated in two named submitters, and the Summary Report (Taxpayer Accounting) checked after each cycle to confirm the filings landed where the ledger says they should.

D.4 Worked cost of a missed cycle (computation)

SME misses its April VAT 7 (net VAT USD 8,000) entirely until 20 July (filed and paid 95 days late, ~3 months). Indicative exposure on the debt-course machinery: penalty up to 100% = USD 8,000 (VAT Section 39, remission jurisprudence aside); interest on USD 8,000 at the foreign-currency 10% p.a. Fifth Schedule rate ≈ USD 8,000 × 10% × 3/12 = USD 200; total ≈ USD 16,200 against an USD 8,000 liability — plus an ITF 263 block for the whole interval and the Section 80 bleed on every receipt from registered payers in between. One line on the Pending page, ignored, repriced the quarter.

Honest position: no reported case addresses the SSP's return screens. The litigated law sits on the duties the screens implement, all carried in the source annotations and earlier lessons: ZIMRA v Packers International (Pvt) Ltd 16-SC-028 — annotated to Section 28(2), the nil-return rule's authority; the Section 37A line — CF (Pvt) Ltd 18-HH-099, DNS 19-HH-722, IAB 22-HH-032, Nestlé Zimbabwe 20-SC-290 / 23-HH-312 — establishing that the deemed assessment created by filing binds and must comply with the law (a self-assessment return cannot smuggle in unlawful positions); PL Mines 15-HH-466 and the Section 46 cluster on the additional-tax consequences of false or defective returns; SZ 20-HH-142 and Redan 23-HH-637 on the Section 72 provisional-tax margins and waiver; and on the electronic frame, PIL v ZIMRA 17-HH-213 (electronic data admissible with due weight, Section 80C). Where a specific holding's full reasoning is not in the source text, the citation is carried at annotation level — .

1. Filing on the dead calendar. The VAT deadline moved from the 25th to the 15th on 1 January 2025 (FA (No. 2) 7/2024 Section 33). Every checklist, engagement letter and standing reminder written before 2025 is suspect until re-dated.
2. Treating the Pending list as optional reading. Lines you disagree with still block clearance. Cure the profile (deregister dead heads; fix categories), don't ignore the symptom.
3. Nil-period silence. Section 28(2) is explicit; Packers International is the warning. Dormancy is managed through the dormant-company proviso and deregistration, never through non-filing.
4. Draft-as-done. Third lesson running: a draft discharges nothing. Dashboards track Submitted status against deadlines, full stop.
5. Submitting without paying (VAT). Section 28(1) couples furnish-calculate-pay in one deadline. A filed-but-unpaid VAT 7 converts a filing achievement into a Section 39 penalty-and-interest clock.
6. Attachment afterthoughts. The schedules are the substantiation; missing or mismatched attachments are audit flags and credit-killers (fiscal-invoice rule for input tax).
7. Last-hour submission. Section 80I timing plus Section 80K downtime fallback mean the prudent margin is days, not minutes — and the burden of the scramble (lock-outs, verification codes, attachment failures) falls on exactly the person with no time left. Two-deep submitters and early cycles are the answer.
8. Wrong-taxpayer filing by multi-client users. Agents and group accountants: confirm the active taxpayer on every shift before opening a form. The header check (C.2) is the seatbelt.
9. Forgetting ad hoc duties. Section 29 special returns (30 days) and Section 30 demands live outside the standing Pending rhythm; when triggered, diarise manually.

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.

• Tax Return Management is the working heart of the SSP: Pending (ZIMRA's expectation list with deadlines), Submitted (view/export/amend while Waiting for Approval), E-Agreement, Old Period Documents, Drafts — and the six-step flow ending in the one act that matters, Submit.
• The Pending list is profile-generated: wrong profile → wrong expectations → blocked ITF 263 → Section 80 30% bleed. Reconcile monthly; cure profiles, not symptoms; missing lines don't repeal the Acts.
• Income tax spine: Section 37 (notice-driven returns, 30-day rhythm, partnership joint return), Section 37A (self-assessment, four months; return = assessment, Section 37A(10)–(11); Commissioner may still assess, Section 37A(12)), Section 37AA (separate currency returns), Section 37B (six-year records), Section 72 (QPDs 10/25/30/35 on 25 Mar/25 Jun/25 Sep/20 Dec).
• VAT spine, old vs new: Section 28(1) furnish-calculate-pay by the 15th day of the following month (shortened from the 25th by FA (No. 2) 7/2024 Section 33, w.e.f. 1 Jan 2025); Section 28(2) nil returns mandatory (Packers International); Section 28(3) discretionary extension; Sections 29–30 special/demanded returns outside the standing rhythm.
• Status doctrine: drafts discharge nothing; Waiting for Approval is the cheap-correction window; Section 80I fixes electronic timing; Section 80K's paper fallback means downtime is never a defence for silence.
• Automation computes; you declare — Section 37(6)–(7) and the penalty machinery attach to inputs, classifications and attachments (fiscal-invoice rule included).
• Never skip a period: nil is a return; dormancy is managed by proviso and deregistration, not silence.
• No case law on the screens (stated honestly); Packers International, the Section 37A line, SZ/Redan and PIL frame the stakes. Screen specifics beyond the guide's confirmed text are flagged .

The standing return calendar (as taught to date)

Status properties

flowchart TD
 A[Monthly: open Pending Tax Returns] --> B{Every line recognised?}
 B -->|No| C[Investigate: profile wrong? head dead? → fix profile / deregister / query]
 B -->|Yes| D[Open return: verify pre-populated header]
 D --> E[Prepare attachments FIRST, then complete body - system computes subtotals]
 E --> F[Save Draft - preparer hands to submitter]
 F --> G[Review → Submit before deadline margin]
 G --> H[Waiting for Approval - amend window if error found]
 H --> I{VAT head?}
 I -->|Yes| J[Pay by the SAME 15th-day deadline - Section 28 1 couples filing and payment]
 I -->|No| K[Pay per head's machinery]
 J --> L[Confirm in Submitted Tax Returns + Summary Report]
 K --> L
 C --> A

Statutes & sections

• Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] — Section 37 (returns on annual notice/written notice; 30-day rhythm; signature by taxpayer or duly authorised agent (5); cognizance (6); attribution (7); Commissioner-appointed return-maker (8); partnership joint return (15); dormant-company proviso); Section 37A (self-assessment, Act 12 of 2006; four-month deadline shape per Finance (No. 2) Act 10 of 2022 w.e.f. YA2023; (10)–(11) furnished return deemed an assessment served on furnishing; (12) Commissioner may still assess); Section 37AA (separate foreign/local currency returns); Section 37B (six-year English records); Section 46 (additional tax); Section 62 (objections); Section 72 (QPDs 10/25/30/35; 25 Mar/25 Jun/25 Sep/20 Dec); Section 80 (30% withholding absent ITF 263); Part VIIIA — Section 80I (lodgment/receipt timing), Section 80K (written fallback).
• VAT Act [Chapter 23:12] — Section 28(1) (furnish, calculate and pay within the period ending on the 15th day of the first month after the tax period; deadline history 2009–2012; shortened from 25th to 15th by Finance (No. 2) Act 7 of 2024 Section 33 w.e.f. 1 Jan 2025; mid-month straddle → last day of month); Section 28(2) (return due whether or not tax payable or refund due — nil returns); Section 28(3) (extension discretion, subject to Section 38); Section 29 (special returns, 30 days, deemed Section 7(1) supplies); Section 30(1) (returns on demand, incl. as agent or trustee); Section 30(2) (monthly tender-award return by the 10th); Section 27 (tax-period categories); Section 38–39 (payment; penalty and interest); Fifth Schedule interest rates (SI 273/2003 as substituted by SI 25/2025).
• Thirteenth Schedule (PAYE remittance machinery; P2 by the 10th per the compliance calendar); Finance Act [Chapter 23:04] Section 4B (24-hour remittance of collected amounts).

Case law

• ZIMRA v Packers International (Pvt) Ltd 16-SC-028 — annotated to VAT Section 28(2): nil/periodic returns due regardless of tax position.
• Self-assessment line (annotated to Section 37A; debt course): CF (Pvt) Ltd 18-HH-099; DNS 19-HH-722; IAB 22-HH-032; Nestlé Zimbabwe 20-SC-290 / 23-HH-312 — the filed return binds and must comply with the law.
• PL Mines 15-HH-466 (Section 46 additional tax, disjunctive grounds); SZ 20-HH-142 (Section 72(11) waiver); Redan 23-HH-637 (QPDs); PIL v ZIMRA 17-HH-213 (Section 80C electronic evidence).

ZIMRA guidance

• Comprehensive Guide to the ZIMRA Self-Service Portal (local External Guide) — Tax Return Management module (five pages; filing flow §9.1: pre-populated header, automatic subtotals, attachments by return type, Save Draft/Drafts, Submit → Waiting for Approval; amend while Waiting for Approval); Employee Management feeding the P2; Taxpayer Accounting (Summary Report reconciliation). Official SSP online help (https://mytaxselfservice.zimra.co.zw/help/ssp/en/default.htm) unreachable this run — per-return field lists, attachment formats, approval workflow and missing-line query route flagged .
• Comprehensive Guide to the VAT 7; Comprehensive Guides to the ITF 12B / ITF 12C / ITF 12C2; Zimbabwe Tax Compliance Calendar (note: any calendar copy showing the VAT 25th-day deadline predates FA (No. 2) 7/2024 — the source Act'Section 15th-day text governs).