By JOHN SAKALA
The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has this month of April introduced instant short message system (SMS) prompts to acknowledge filing of returns.
The two SMSs are sent immediately the return is filed in electronically acknowledging the execution of the exercise.
This means defrauding cases will be minimized henceforth.
Several taxpayers who could give the money to tax agents to file the returns on their behalf were defrauded.
The tax agents would initially stay with the money for days and later use the money.
But with this new system, the registered phone number will be notified immediately that the return has been filed and the type of the return filed in.
This is a double barrel as the taxpayers will continue to receive the emails to the registered emails.
Example of text messages: ‘We acknowledge receiving your ORIGINAL Pay As You Earn return. You can track the status of the return using your reference number 1121101617781.
“We acknowledge receiving your ORIGINAL Turnover Tax return. You can track the status of the return using your reference number 1121101617899. Please be informed that the ORIGINAL Turnover Tax return submitted on 06/04/2021 with reference number 1121101617899 has been APPROVED.”
And ZRA Corporate Communications Manager Topsy Sikalinda said, “This is why it’s important for all taxpayers to ensure they update and have correct demographic details such as phone numbers and emails among others on the system.”
