On 25th March 2021, the Supreme Court (“the Court”) rendered its judgment on the issue of the extent to which a taxpayer’s failure to produce appropriate documents will justify the Zambia Revenue Authority’s (“ZRA”) rejection to grant a tax credit/refund to a taxpayer. This judgment impeached the ruling of the Tax Appeals Tribunal (“the Tribunal”), which was given on 23rd September 2020.
The Background of this matter is that in from 4th to 12th October 2018, an audit was undertaken by the ZRA to ascertain the validity of Matalloy Company Limited’s (“Matalloy Co”) VAT refund claims for the period November 2017 to May 2018. In a letter dated 15th October 2018, Matalloy Co requested to amend typing errors in the submitted VAT returns but the ZRA declined the request stating that a request to amend cannot be entertained
once an audit is underway. The audit proceeded in the absence of the amendments and it disclosed that some import VAT claims did not match import documents furnished for purposes of verification. Ultimately the VAT returns and refund claims were found to be inaccurate.
Download the full document here.
