STANDARD     CHARTERED     BANK     ZIMBABWE     LIMITED    

v

   ZIMBABWE     REVENUE     AUTHORITY

SUPREME COURT OF ZIMBABWE

GUVAVA JA, MAVANGIRA JA & ZIYAMBI AJA

HARARE, MAY 22, 2017 & MARCH 20, 2018.

AP de Bourbon, for the appellant

T Magwaliba, for the respondent

ZIYAMBI AJA:

[1]        This is an appeal against a judgment of the High Court sitting as an Appeal Court in terms of s 65 of the Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”).  It concerns certain income tax assessments made in respect of the appellant by the respondent with regard to the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. Of the four issues which were raised in the High Court, three were decided against the appellant and form the subject of this appeal. They are:

“Whether or not the appellant was entitled to claim the costs of a staff reduction exercise in the year in which the offer was made to the staff to take voluntary retirement;  whether the appellant was correctly held to have earned interest in respect of offshore loans made to various customers in each of the three years of the amended assessments; and  whether the charges debited against the foreign nostro accounts of the appellant by the bank operating such accounts were liable to withholding tax in terms of s 30, as read with the 17^th Schedule, of the Act.”

I deal with each of these issues in turn.

Whether or not the appellant was entitled to claim the costs of a staff reduction exercise in the year in which the offer was made to the staff to take voluntary retirement.