ZimCompany › Get an estimate
Get an estimate for a Zimbabwean company
Twelve questions, about three minutes, with one more where a Private Business Corporation is the chosen or recommended vehicle, because that route is asked whether it has an accounting officer, and one more where an owner is not a Zimbabwean citizen and the sector contains a reserved activity, because that route is asked whether the company will mainly do it. At the end you get the vehicle Zimbabwean law allows you with the reason, a recommended bundle, our fee, the government fees as their own number, and the list of documents we need. It works the same whether you are a Zimbabwean living abroad, a foreign investor, or a company outside Zimbabwe opening a subsidiary. 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.
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.
What we ask
- Where do you live now? United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Botswana, United States, Canada, Somewhere else. This is about where you are, not about what passport you hold. It changes how documents are certified, how you pay us and when you can reach a person.
- Who will own the company? Zimbabwean citizens only, At least one owner is a foreign national, A company registered outside Zimbabwe, A mix of Zimbabwean and foreign owners. Ownership decides which extra requirements apply. It does not decide whether you are welcome: every answer below gets a price, except a foreign owner buying into a company that already exists, which starts with a consultation. The foreign investor consultation is US$150, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered.
- What do you need? A new Private Limited Company, A new Private Business Corporation, A company, but I am not sure which kind, To re-register a dormant company, To buy into a company that already exists, I am already registered and need tax or NSSA. A Private Limited Company is owned by shareholders, which can include another company, and needs a director and a company secretary who are ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe (sections 195(2) and 198). A Private Business Corporation is owned by one to twenty individual members, needs nobody resident, and names a qualified accounting officer instead (sections 248, 252 and 253), so it cannot be owned by a company. The two vehicles side by side.
- What will the company do? Professional or business services, Software, ICT or online services, Construction or engineering, Manufacturing, Mining or minerals, Tourism or hospitality, Health or education, Import and export, Agriculture or farming, Retail or wholesale trade, Transport or logistics, Something else. Some sectors are reserved by Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025 where an owner is not a Zimbabwean citizen or is a company registered outside Zimbabwe. If your sector contains one, the next question asks whether the company will mainly do it, rather than quoting you a price we may have to withdraw.
- Will the company mainly do any of these? Passenger buses, taxis and car hire services, Retail and wholesale trade, Barber shops, hairdressing and beauty salons, Employment agencies, Estate agencies, Valet services, Grain milling, Bakeries, Tobacco grading and packaging, Advertising agencies, Provision of local arts and craft, marketing and distribution, Artisanal mining, Haulage and logistics, Borehole drilling, Clearing and customs, Shipping and forwarding, Pharmaceutical retailing, None of these. Asked because an owner is not a Zimbabwean citizen or is a company registered outside Zimbabwe, and your sector contains activities that Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025 reserves. A foreign stake of any size counts, including one held by a foreign company. Choose every one the company will mainly do, or None of these. The seventeen reserved sectors. Passenger buses, taxis and car hire services: Exclusively for Zimbabweans, except for international brands. Retail and wholesale trade: Open to a foreign national only with at least 200 full-time paid employees and a minimum investment of US$20,000,000, and a permit from the Minister. Barber shops, hairdressing and beauty salons: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Employment agencies: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Estate agencies: Exclusively for Zimbabweans, except for international brands. Valet services: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Grain milling: Open to a foreign national only with at least 50 full-time paid employees and a minimum investment of US$25,000,000, and a permit from the Minister. Bakeries: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Tobacco grading and packaging: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Advertising agencies: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Provision of local arts and craft, marketing and distribution: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Artisanal mining: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Haulage and logistics: Open to a foreign national only with at least 100 full-time paid employees and a minimum investment of US$10,000,000, and a permit from the Minister. Borehole drilling: Exclusively for Zimbabweans. Clearing and customs: Exclusively for Zimbabweans, except for international brands. Shipping and forwarding: Open to a foreign national only with at least 20 full-time paid employees and a minimum investment of US$1,000,000, and a permit from the Minister. Pharmaceutical retailing: Exclusively for Zimbabweans.
- How many owners, and where are they? A single owner, The owner plus family in Zimbabwe, Two or more owners, all outside Zimbabwe, Owners inside and outside Zimbabwe. On a Private Limited Company the owner count sets the board: two to nine shareholders need at least two directors, and ten or more need at least three (section 195(1)). A single shareholder can be the only director.
- Is there someone ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe who can be a director? Yes, I have someone, No, there is nobody, Possibly, I would have to ask them. A Private Limited Company must have at least one, under section 195(2). A Private Business Corporation needs nobody resident at all, though it does have to name a qualified accounting officer. Ordinarily resident means Zimbabwe is where the person actually lives, their settled home, which is about residence and not about passports. The Act does not define the phrase any further, so if your person splits their time between countries, tell us and we check it before you pay. What the Act asks of each vehicle.
- Do you have a Zimbabwe address for the registered office? Yes, an address I can use, No, I would need one. Any Zimbabwe address you can use counts. Foreign addresses on a filing slow it down, so we recommend a Zimbabwe address on every registration.
- Which of these do you need now? ZIMRA registration and Business Partner Number, Tax clearance certificate, NSSA employer registration, VAT registration, PRAZ supplier registration for tenders, Help opening a business bank account, Monthly bookkeeping and payroll, Data protection licence, Trademark registration, None of these yet. Choose as many as apply. Buying them with the registration is cheaper than coming back for them. ZIMRA registration and Business Partner Number: Your company's tax registration, which gives it a TIN on ZIMRA's TaRMS system. Every company that trades needs it, and it comes first because a tax clearance and VAT registration both need it; a company that has not started trading registers when it does. What ZIMRA registration involves. Tax clearance certificate: ZIMRA's certificate (form ITF263) that your company's returns and tax payments are up to date. Without it, a business paying you on a contract of US$1,000 or more withholds 30%, so you need it before you invoice companies or bid for tenders; a company that is not invoicing yet can wait. How the ITF263 works. NSSA employer registration: Registration with the National Social Security Authority as an employer. You only need it once you employ someone, and then within 30 days of becoming an employer, so a company with nobody on the payroll does not need it yet. What NSSA registration involves. VAT registration: Only if you expect to invoice more than US$25,000 in twelve months, or hold signed contracts that will. ZIMRA asks for sales records or projections, a bank statement and a lease, so a brand-new company usually registers later; we do it then for the same price. The VAT threshold explained. PRAZ supplier registration for tenders: Registration with the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, which public entities require before they contract with a supplier. You only need it to bid for government tenders; being paid by government later also needs a vendor number from the Ministry of Finance, once the company is banked. PRAZ and the vendor number. Help opening a business bank account: An account in the company's own name at a Zimbabwean bank, which VAT registration and a government vendor number both ask to see a statement from. Where a director is ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe we prepare the bank pack and they attend the branch; with nobody in Zimbabwe, this is coming soon. What still needs someone in Zimbabwe. Monthly bookkeeping and payroll: Keeping the books and filing the monthly returns a registered company owes: PAYE and NSSA by the 10th once you have staff, and VAT by the 25th if you are registered. A company with no staff and no trading yet does not need full bookkeeping; the Lite retainer is built for that stage and keeps its tax clearance alive. Retainer tiers and prices. Data protection licence: A licence from POTRAZ, which Statutory Instrument 155 of 2024 requires of every organisation that holds personal data, such as a customer list, a payroll or staff files. A company that holds none of that yet has nothing to license; our sister practice StoneGuard handles it once you do. Data protection licensing at StoneGuard. Trademark registration: Registering your brand name or logo under the Trade Marks Act [Chapter 26:04], which is a separate application from registering the company: an approved company name is not a trade mark. A company still settling its name and logo can leave it until they are fixed, and we quote it separately.
- Will you employ staff in Zimbabwe in the first year? Yes, No, Probably, later in the year. NSSA registers EMPLOYERS, within 30 days of becoming one. If you have nobody on the payroll yet, we leave employer registration out of your estimate and out of the bundle, and add it at your first hire for the same price.
- Will you sell to government or bid for tenders? Yes, that is the plan, Maybe, if the work comes up, No. Bidding needs PRAZ supplier registration, because public entities contract only with registered suppliers. Getting paid is a separate step: a vendor number from the Ministry of Finance, applied for once the company has a Zimbabwe bank account. Bidding versus getting paid.
- Do you have a Zimbabwe-registered accountant who will act as the PBC's accounting officer? Yes, I have an accountant who will act, No, I would need to find one, Not sure. A Private Business Corporation must name one on its incorporation statement (section 248), and the statement is signed by someone qualified to be it (section 274). We do not provide one yet, so this decides whether your estimate carries a note telling you what the registry needs from yours.
- What do you expect to invoice in the first year? Under US$25,000, US$25,000 to US$100,000, Over US$100,000, I genuinely do not know yet. This answer decides whether VAT registration is in your estimate. ZIMRA registers a trader for VAT once taxable supplies exceed, or are expected to exceed, US$25,000 in a twelve month period, so we leave the line out below that and add it the moment your figure says otherwise.
- When do you want to start? This month, In the next one to three months, I am researching for now.
What you get back
- A recommended vehicle. A Private Business Corporation needs nobody ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe, and names a qualified accounting officer on its incorporation statement instead, under sections 248 and 274 of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act. A Private Limited Company needs one resident director under section 195(2) and a resident company secretary under section 198. ZimCompany provides none of the three, so each is an appointment the client names, shown as a note carrying no figure.
- Two numbers. Our fee, and the government fees at cost, never merged into one figure.
- A document list. Including what has to be certified where you live, which we confirm rather than guess.
- A price on the foreign owner route too. Where an owner is a foreign national, a company registered outside Zimbabwe, or a mix of the two, you get the same filing estimate, plus the one-off registered office sourcing line where you have no Zimbabwe address. The company secretary section 198 asks of a Private Limited Company is shown as a note carrying no figure, because we do not provide one yet and you appoint your own. ZIDA registration assistance is a note carrying no figure too, and neither is added to your total. Where the company will mainly do a reserved activity, the estimate says what Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025 says about it and starts with a consultation instead.
- The bank account rule, stated before you pick it. Where someone ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe is on the board, ZimCompany prepares the bank pack and that Zimbabwe-based director attends the branch, quoted after the estimate. For an owner with nobody in Zimbabwe, business bank account opening is coming soon: banks currently ask directors to appear in person or send certified documents.
- A paid consultation instead of a price on four routes: a foreign owner buying into a Zimbabwean company that already exists, because exchange control approval can apply to that transaction; a company with a foreign owner that will mainly do a reserved activity, because Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025 keeps thirteen sectors for Zimbabweans and opens four to a foreign owner only above a threshold and with the Minister's permit; a dormant company, whose register check comes before its quotation; and a company that already exists and has not asked for a filing the questionnaire can price. Each fee is paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered.
- A quotation that waits for a resident director on a Private Limited Company with nobody ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe. It is not a consultation: reply with the name of a person ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe to be a director, or choose a Private Business Corporation, and we send the quotation.
What a consultation costs
- Re-registration register check, US$50. A dormant company coming back onto the register. We check what the registry holds against it before quoting the total. The re-registration register check is a paid consultation: US$50, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered.
- Foreign investor consultation, US$150. A foreign owner buying into a Zimbabwean company that already exists, where exchange control approval can apply; a company with a foreign owner that will mainly operate in a reserved sector under Statutory Instrument 215 of 2025; and ZIDA registration assistance. The foreign investor consultation is US$150, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered.
- General consultation, US$50. A company that already exists and has not yet asked for a filing the questionnaire can price. The general consultation is US$50, paid before the consultation, credited in full against your quotation if you proceed, and not refunded if you do not, because the consultation has been delivered.