ZIMBABWEAN INFORMAL SECTOR ZIMRA TAX REVENUE COLLECTION BARRIERS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges faced by ZIMRA in tax revenue collection from street vendors in the informal business sector in Zimbabwe. A descriptive research design was adopted. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis was also carried out where data collected using the questionnaire was analysed quantitatively while data collected using interviews was analysed qualitatively. The population for this study was 2220 comprised of 50 ZIMRA officials and 2170 street vendors in the informal sector in Harare central business district from which the sample size was selected. The sample size was 100 respondents drawn from the population sample frame of 2220. In selecting the sample size, the study adopted a purposive sampling technique. Main instruments were questionnaires, complemented by interviews. The data collected was presented in mean and standard deviation, cross-tabulation and frequency tables for quantitative data collected using the questionnaire, however, pie charts and bar charts were used in presenting qualitative data collected using the interviews. The study found that the government through ZIMRA used a variety of initiatives to collect tax revenue from street vendors, however, the most prominent method used to collect was the presumptive tax levied on street vendors being empowered with the Income Tax Act (Chapter 24:06), Section 36(f). Given the findings made in this study recommendations were made to the Government Department of Taxes (ZIMRA), encouraging ZIMRA to carryout tax education to all street vendors improve on their understanding of tax issues, such as type of tax heads to pay.