Zimbabwe makes failing to issue a fiscal tax invoice a criminal offence (VAT Act section 63A)

What changed in detail

The Finance Act, 2023 (No. 13 of 2023) inserted section 63A, “Offences and penalties in regard to fiscalisation”, into the Value Added Tax Act [Chapter 23:12] with effect from 29 December 2023. Section 63A(2) creates four offences:

• (a) A person registered or required to be registered as an operator who fails to issue a fiscal tax invoice or receipt to any buyer or, where the buyer refuses it, to keep a copy for at least 24 months from the date of purchase: a fine not exceeding level 7, imprisonment of up to six months, or both.
• (b) Such a person who fails to produce a fiscal tax invoice or receipt to a ZIMRA officer on demand, within 12 months of the demand: the same penalty.
• (c) Anyone who manufactures, sells, offers to sell or distributes fiscal memory devices without being a supplier approved by ZIMRA under regulations made under section 78: a fine not exceeding level 14, imprisonment of up to five years, or both.
• (d) A registered or registrable operator who deliberately tampers with an electronic fiscal device so that it fails to record taxable transactions faithfully: the same level 14 / five-year penalty.

Section 63A(1) gives words defined in the Act’s Schedule the same meaning in the section.

What it means

Section 63A is in force. ZIMRA’s consolidated text to 1 December 2024, the latest it publishes, shows no later amendment, and the fiscalisation duty has since been extended: under the Finance Act, 2025, registered non-resident digital-services suppliers must also issue fiscalised tax invoices (record).

Fiscalisation itself was not new; operators had been required to fiscalise under regulations since 2010. What changed is that failure became a criminal offence in the Act, with imprisonment available. The 24-month copy-retention rule for invoices a buyer refuses is the easiest one to miss. Businesses near the US$25,000 registration threshold should note that the offences apply to those “required to be registered”, not only to those who have registered.