Extent of Rental Income Tax Compliance by Taxpayers’ in Zambia: Case of Residential Properties in Kitwe City

Abstract

Government mainly raises domestic revenue through taxation such as income tax, value added tax and customs and excise duty. Residential rental income tax is a component of income tax. There is low rental income tax collections in Zambia caused by among other things low taxpayers’ compliance. In order to obtain insights about the actual realities on the ground and using Kitwe city as a case study area, the research evaluated the extent of residential rental income tax compliance among taxpayers in Zambia. Both primary data was obtained through use of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires while secondary data was collected from both published and grey literature. The research findings showed that there is low rental income tax compliance among taxpayers. Low taxpayers’ compliance is caused by limited taxpayers’ awareness on some aspects of rental income tax issues such as deadlines and modes of payments, tax officials not having the right attitude, the Zambia Revenue Authority website not being easy to navigate and use, high tax rate, erratic deregistration of taxpayers, and lack of a fair tax system. In view of the foregoing, the study recommends that in order to improve rental income tax compliance by taxpayers, there is need to: provide information to taxpayers on rental income tax, conduct training for tax officials, simplify Zambia Revenue Authority website, lower the rate for rental income tax, revert to landlords paying tax, and encourage fairness of the tax system