HEYWOOD HAULAGE INVESTMENTS CENTRAL AFRICA (PVT) LTD v COMMISSIONER-GENERAL, ZIMBABWE REVENUE AUTHORITY 2011 (1) ZLR 428 (H)

Flynote

Interpretation of statutes — fiscal legislation — strict construction required — no room for equitable construction

Headnote

The applicant, for the three months before the multi-currency system came into effect in Zimbabwe, availed to its employees fuel coupons and food hampers as part payment of remuneration due to them. The rest was paid in local currency. The applicant had for the period under consideration paid employee tax in local currency. The respondent asserted that the fuel coupons and food hampers should be treated as remuneration in foreign currency and that PAYE in respect thereof should have been paid by the applicant in foreign currency. The applicant contended that the issuance of fuel coupons and food hampers could not, as a matter of law, be regarded as remuneration in foreign currency. The applicant sought a declaratory order to the effect that PAYE in foreign currency was not due. The respondent argued that since the applicant obtained the fuel coupons and food hampers using foreign currency and that the employees would in turn redeem them on the market in the form of foreign currency, PAYE should be paid in foreign currency. Alternatively, the respondent argued that the payment of remuneration in the form of fuel coupons and food hampers was a scheme aimed at avoiding the payment of tax in foreign currency. Finally, it was argued that "remuneration" paid in foreign currency was money or any other property, corporeal or incorporeal, having an ascertainable money value, paid in United States dollars or Euros or any of the designated currencies, to an employee by way of a salary, wage, etc.

Held, that in terms of para 3(1)(a) of the 13th Schedule to the Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06], where remuneration from which employees' tax is required to be withheld is wholly or partly remuneration paid in foreign currency, the employer must remit PAYE in respect thereof in foreign currency, that is, in United States dollars or Euros or any other currency denominated under the Exchange Control (General) Order. The definition of remuneration is restricted to payment in foreign currency. It does not include payment in kind, even if such kind might have been acquired by the employer using foreign currency or redeemed by the employee in foreign currency. In interpreting tax legislation, one must give effect strictly to the words used by the legislature. There is no room for any intendment. There is no equity about a tax. There is no presumption as to a tax. Nothing is to be read in common; nothing is to be implied. One can only look fairly at the language used.