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Churches and ministers of religion are not exempt from the tax laws of Zimbabwe and ZIMRA has a duty to investigate those who fail to supply required information and who fail to declare their income and pay the assessed taxes. But it must be remembered that an organisation can only be taxed on profits, and if there are no profits there is no tax. There are procedures to follow that any non-profit organisation can use.

All individuals have to pay income tax on their income and assessed benefits, however, these are derived. For many churches this has never been a problem.

Most are definitely non-profit organisations, spending on church activities and places of worship basically everything that comes in as income. Decent accounts are kept, so congregants, donors and the taxman can all see at a glance what income has come in, and from where, and what has been spent, and on what. Even at parish level, if a hall for example was rented out for a wedding reception then that rent was put straight into parish funds and accounted for.

But as anyone who has attended parish meetings or their equivalent will know, the problem has never been how to spend money, more about how to raise enough to keep the parish functioning effectively. Occasionally there have been surpluses, and these have been immediately invested, with the income from those investments going back into church funds and being spent. If a company has to be set up, so as to obtain limited liability, to manage some investments then these rely on directors earning no fees, and so paying no additional tax.

Clergy and administrative lay staff in almost all the older churches are on salary, whether this is called a salary or called a stipend. But again everything is accounted for and if these salaries reach PAYE thresholds then this tax is paid.

There was a clear distinction between church funds and income and the income of paid staff. But it was also recognised that becoming a clergyman was not a route to riches. However, in recent years there has been a boom in new-style evangelical churches. Some of these present no problem to zimra and present no ethical questions.

Perfect accounts are kept and there is no confusion between church money and payments to staff. Most of these churches are non-profit organisations and many follow the excellent practice of having clergy on fixed salaries, for ethical as well as accountancy reasons.

But some are suspected of doing things differently and that surpluses are distributed to senior clergy, that is whatever is left from income after basic expenses are met goes into the pocket of the senior clergy, that clergy or their relatives benefit from fees paid by companies that might be managing church investments, and similar practices.

zimra could not care less, of course, how clergy are remunerated.

All the tax officers want to know is what is everyone’s income and if income tax is due they want it paid. zimra have made recommendations on clarifying existing law, but the basic legal requirements are already in place and there is no excuse, and never has been an excuse, for any church not to follow these simple requirements.