Dear editor,
I WRITE to appeal to Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) to consider enlightening landlords and landladies who do not seem to understand the meaning of withholding tax and who is supposed to pay this kind of tax.
I am aware that withholding tax has been there for a long time but was not just being collected. Since ZRA announced early this year that it had started collecting withholding tax, some landlords and landladies have taken advantage of the situation and have increased rentals on the pretext that they have to pay withholding tax.
May ZRA, please explain to these house owners that it is not them who are supposed to pay withholding tax but their tenants. Most of them do not seem to know that it is the tenant who is legally obliged to pay this tax and not the landlord or landlady.
As one of the affected tenants, I have tried to explain to my landlord that it is me who should pay withholding tax to ZRA but my explanation seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Please ZRA come to our aid!
Somehow, I do not blame my landlord for his insistence that he is the one who is supposed to pay this tax. I think ZRA has not done enough sensitisation on this matter. Please, explain this issue with the urgency it deserves.
LUSAKA TENANT