THE High Court has delivered a major victory for the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), discharging an interdict that had temporarily stopped it from collecting disputed income tax from Unki Mines, and ruling that the platinum miner must pay its tax in United States dollars as required by law.
In a detailed judgment handed down after hearings spread between March and November 2025, Justice Faith Mushure ruled that ZIMRA acted lawfully in demanding payment in USD and that Unki Mines failed to establish a “clear right” to block tax collection.
“The provisional order ought to be discharged,” Mushure said, adding that ZIMRA’s actions were “within the confines of what it is legally empowered to do.” Costs were awarded against Unki Mines.
The dispute arose from Unki’s status as a holder of a special mining lease, which allows such operators to elect to keep their books in foreign currency. Unki elected to maintain its accounts in United States dollars, an election the court stressed is “final and binding.”
Following the introduction of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s foreign currency retention scheme, Unki remitted part of its earnings to the RBZ, which liquidated a portion into local currency. Relying on section 4A(10) of the Finance Act, the miner paid part of its income tax in Zimbabwe dollars, arguing that tax on liquidated amounts should be treated as local-currency income.
ZIMRA disagreed, insisting that paragraph 11 of the 22nd Schedule to the Income Tax Act required both assessment and payment of tax in USD for special mining lease holders who had elected to keep their records in that currency. When the tax authority demanded payment within seven days in letters dated March and September 2024, Unki rushed to court and secured a provisional order barring garnishee proceedings, even as more than US$8 million was briefly seized automatically by ZIMRA’s TaRMS system.
At the centre of the feud of the case was whether ZIMRA had issued a valid tax assessment and whether the Finance Act could override the Income Tax Act.
On the assessment issue, the court dismissed Unki’s argument that ZIMRA’s demand letters were unlawful. Justice Mushure found that Unki had submitted self-assessments, which by law “are deemed to be assessments made by the Commissioner-General and are therefore binding on the applicant.”
“In my view, stating that the self-assessed taxable income had to be paid in the declared currency is not an additional assessment,” the judge said. “There was nothing to add or subtract from the self-assessments since there was no anomaly with the self-assessments. The real issue is that the tax declared… was not paid in the currency declared therein.”
The court rejected claims that ZIMRA should have issued an amended or reduced assessment, holding that no excess tax had been charged and that the authority had merely enforced payment in the correct currency.
On the substantive legal conflict, Justice Mushure acknowledged that section 4A(10) of the Finance Act appears, at first glance, to clash with paragraph 11 of the 22nd Schedule. He noted that he could be “persuaded” that forcing miners to surrender foreign currency to the RBZ while still paying tax in USD might seem “absurd” or “unconscionable.”
However, the judge ultimately ruled that the law was clear and that the special provisions governing special mining leases prevailed over general revenue provisions.
“Paragraph 11 of the 22nd Schedule… is clear and unambiguous,” he said. “By statutory command… payment of tax shall be effected in the currency of the United States of America.”
Invoking the long-established principle that special laws override general ones, the court held that section 4A(10) of the Finance Act “cannot override paragraph 11 of the 22nd Schedule to the Income Tax Act.”
Justice Mushure said that courts have no leeway to soften the impact of tax law, even where the outcome is harsh.
“No matter how great the hardship may appear to the judicial mind to be, if the applicant comes within the letter of the law… then the applicant must be taxed,” he said, echoing classic fiscal law authorities.
The court added that any perceived unfairness or policy gap lay with Parliament, not the judiciary, suggesting that lawmakers could revisit the framework “in the spirit of ease of doing business and promoting investment.”
Because Unki failed to show a clear legal right, the court found it unnecessary to consider the remaining requirements for a final interdict.
“It is a fundamental principle of our law that one cannot interdict a lawful process,” Mushure ruled.
The provisional order stopping ZIMRA from collecting the tax was discharged, clearing the way for the revenue authority to pursue recovery of the disputed amounts, in United States dollars.
