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Despite recent adjustments to the Intermediated Money Transfer Tax (IMTT) framework, Zimbabwean consumers remain trapped in a taxation loop that penalises them for moving funds between their own mobile wallets.
The treasury recently revised the IMTT rate on local currency (ZiG) transactions downwards from 2% to 1.5% to encourage the use of the local currency, while maintaining foreign currency (USD) transactions at 2%. However, these policy tweaks fail to address a systemic oversight: the treatment of cross-platform personal wallet transfers.
Under current Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) guidelines, moving funds between different accounts housed within the same financial institution is explicitly exempt from IMTT. Yet, when an individual shifts money between separate digital platforms such as EcoCash, InnBucks, or Old Mutual’s Omari, the transaction is automatically flagged as an external electronic transfer and taxed.
This technical gap persists despite strict Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements. Users register each wallet using the same national identity number, mobile number, and verified personal details. While platforms verify identity for security, the tax collection system lacks cross-platform integration to recognize self-transfers.
As a result, a consumer moving $100 from an EcoCash wallet to an InnBucks account to access specific merchant services incurs a 2% USD levy ($2.00) in tax alone, alongside platform service fees. Moving ZiG funds incurs a 1.5% cut. Re-routing the same funds back or through another wallet subjects the money to repeated taxation.
While the government continues to use IMTT to expand domestic resource mobilisation, the lack of an integrated identity-tracking mechanism for cross-wallet transfers incentivises cash transactions over digital payments.
Until ZIMRA updates the tax framework to track national IDs across competing fintech ecosystems, Zimbabwean consumers will continue paying a financial penalty simply for managing their own money.
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