ZimCompany › VAT registration
A trader is liable to register for VAT in Zimbabwe once the value of taxable supplies exceeds, or is expected to exceed, US$25,000 or the ZiG equivalent within a period of 12 months. Below that, registration is voluntary but subject to a minimum turnover set by the Commissioner. The standard rate is 15.5% and returns fall due by the 25th. Verified 13 September 2026 (ZIMRA).
Last verified 10 September 2026. Each item takes five working days from the day we have your complete documents, confirmed in writing by our filing partner. Where one item depends on another they run in sequence, so a ZIMRA registration waits for the certificate of incorporation and a tax clearance waits for the ZIMRA registration.
You pay in full when you instruct the job, in one payment rather than in stages. Our fee and the government fee are separate numbers on the quote, and government fees are passed through at cost. Your quotation arrives by email. Reply to it and we confirm your timeline in writing before you pay. If we cannot confirm a timeline in writing, anything you have paid comes back in full.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority puts it in these words: a trader is liable to register for VAT if the value of taxable supplies exceeds or is expected to exceed US$25,000.00, or the ZiG equivalent, within a period of 12 months. Two phrases in that sentence carry the whole rule. Exceeds covers the company that has already invoiced past the threshold. Expected to exceed covers the company that has not, but holds signed contracts or a projection that will take it there. Verified 13 September 2026 (ZIMRA).
Below the threshold you may apply to register voluntarily, but that route is subject to a minimum turnover set by the Commissioner, so it is an application that can be declined rather than a box you tick. It is worth applying when your customers are themselves VAT registered and will claim the input tax, and worth avoiding when your customers are ordinary consumers who simply see a higher price.
The standard rate rose from 15% to 15.5% with effect from 1 January 2026, announced in the 2026 National Budget. Any calculator, quote or invoice template still carrying 15% is out of date.
Registration is not only a rate. It is a monthly return, due by the 25th, with a penalty regime behind it that is punitive by design: late VAT attracts a daily penalty and interest, and the amounts add up faster than any other head.
This is the part that decides whether a company can register at all, and it is the part almost nobody is shown before they ask for it. The registration requirements are evidence about a business that is already trading.
Verified 13 September 2026 (ZIMRA). A company registered last week has no sales schedule, no invoices, no stamped bank statement and often no lease, so it usually cannot register for VAT yet whatever it would like to do.
That is why our questionnaire leaves VAT registration out of your estimate when you tell us you expect to invoice under US$25,000 in the first year, or that you do not know yet. It is not a refusal and it is not a judgement about your business. We register you when the evidence is there, at the same price shown on this page.
A VAT registered company files a return by the 25th of each month, whether or not it traded. It charges 15.5% on standard-rated supplies, claims input tax on the VAT it has paid, and remits the difference. The record keeping behind that is real work: every input claim needs a valid tax invoice.
Our Plus compliance retainer covers the monthly VAT return alongside the payroll filings, on the basis that you send us sales and purchase figures by the 5th.
Our fee for vat registration in Zimbabwe: US$450. Government fees included in the price, not itemised by ZIMRA. Our fee and the government fee are always shown as two separate numbers.
Each item takes five working days from the day we have your complete documents, confirmed in writing by our filing partner. Where one item depends on another they run in sequence, so a ZIMRA registration waits for the certificate of incorporation and a tax clearance waits for the ZIMRA registration.
You pay in full when you instruct the job, in one payment rather than in stages. Our fee and the government fee are separate numbers on the quote, and government fees are passed through at cost. Your quotation arrives by email. Reply to it and we confirm your timeline in writing before you pay. If we cannot confirm a timeline in writing, anything you have paid comes back in full. Prices were last verified on 10 September 2026. The full price list is at ZimCompany pricing.
When the value of taxable supplies exceeds, or is expected to exceed, US$25,000 or the ZiG equivalent within a period of 12 months. Below that a trader may apply to register voluntarily, subject to a minimum turnover set by the Commissioner. Verified 13 September 2026 (ZIMRA).
A TIN, all tax heads up to date, a sales schedule from commencement of trade, sample sales invoices or signed contracts, a 12 month sales projection, a current stamped bank statement, a public officer appointment letter, and a lease agreement or title deed for the premises. Verified 13 September 2026 (ZIMRA).
Usually not yet. ZIMRA asks for a sales schedule from commencement of trade, sample invoices or signed contracts, a stamped bank statement and a lease, and a company incorporated last week has none of them. A company that holds signed contracts which will take it past US$25,000 in 12 months is in a different position, because the test is met by supplies expected as well as supplies made. Where you are not there yet we register the company, get the ZIMRA registration and the Business Partner Number in place, and come back to VAT when the evidence exists, at the same price.
15.5%. The standard rate rose from 15% with effect from 1 January 2026 under the 2026 National Budget.
It depends on who your customers are, and it is an application rather than a choice: voluntary registration is subject to a minimum turnover set by the Commissioner. If your customers are VAT registered businesses claiming input tax, registration costs them nothing and makes you look established. If they are consumers, it makes you 15.5% more expensive for no gain.
VAT carries the harshest late-filing regime of any head, with a daily penalty and interest. It is the single strongest argument for putting a monthly retainer behind a company nobody is running from inside the country.
Each item takes five working days from the day we have your complete documents, confirmed in writing by our filing partner. Where one item depends on another they run in sequence, so a ZIMRA registration waits for the certificate of incorporation and a tax clearance waits for the ZIMRA registration. The five working days are counted from the day we hold everything we asked you for, not from the day you paid, because an incomplete file cannot be lodged. Where you are buying more than one item we do not publish a total, because the dependent ones run one after another. Your quotation arrives by email. Reply to it and we confirm your timeline in writing before you pay. If we cannot confirm a timeline in writing, anything you have paid comes back in full.
ZimCompany registers and runs Zimbabwean companies for people and businesses anywhere in the world: owners living outside Zimbabwe, foreign investors, and companies registered elsewhere that need a Zimbabwean entity. Email support@lioncapventures.com or message +263 77 272 4514 on WhatsApp. We work 9:00 to 17:00 CAT, UTC+2 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
ZimCompany is a Lioncap Ventures service. Lioncap Ventures (Pvt) Ltd, registration 16326A02102024, Harare, Zimbabwe. Start with the questionnaire at https://zimcompany.com/start.
Register a company in Zimbabwe: The two vehicles, the steps from name search to ZIMRA, the documents the registry needs, and what each step costs, with the government fee as its own number.