Before you start

A valid permit or other lawful status
Employer registration for PAYE
A Chitungwiza address for the rates account

Step-by-step

1
Establish which PAYE table applies to your pay
ZIMRA maintains a ZWG table and a foreign-currency table, and its guidance where a salary has both components is to use the USD tables and apportion the tax due.
Via employerWho: Your employer
2
Know the USD scale
On ZIMRA's most recently published foreign-currency monthly table — January to December 2025 — the first US$100 is free, then 20% to US$300, 25% to US$1,000, 30% to US$2,000, 35% to US$3,000 and 40% above. The annual top band starts at US$36,001, and a 3% AIDS levy is added to the tax due. Check the year on the table before you model anything.
Via employerWho: Your employer
3
Budget the transfer tax
ZIMRA's rate is 2 cents in the local-currency dollar and 1 cent in the US dollar on money moved electronically. On a low income the absolute amount is small, but as a share of a Chitungwiza wage it is not nothing.
OnlineWho: You
4
Open the Chitungwiza Municipality rates account
Rates, water and refuse are billed by the municipality, not by the City of Harare, even though the water itself is bought from Harare. Check the account is in your name and not the previous occupant's.
In personWho: You
5
Go to ZIMRA in Harare if you need to go at all
The revenue authority's main offices are in the capital. For a PAYE-only employee there is rarely a reason to attend in person, but if there is, plan the trip rather than assuming a local counter.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport and permit
Employment contract stating the currency of pay
Bank or mobile money details
Proof of Chitungwiza address for the rates account

Things most newcomers don’t know

There is no commuter tax, and no Harare levy for working there.

Zimbabwe has nothing resembling Ohio's work-city income tax or Japan's per-capita residence surcharge. You pay national PAYE wherever you sleep and wherever you work. Newcomers from federal systems look for the catch and there isn't one.

Source: ZIMRA — Pay As You Earn

The municipal bill is genuinely lower here, and it is the one real fiscal difference.

Chitungwiza Municipality sets its own rates, water and refuse charges, and they sit well below the City of Harare's. Combined with rents at a fraction of the capital's, this is most of the arithmetic that puts people on the Seke Road every morning.

Source: Chitungwiza Municipality rates billing

The two ZIMRA tables tell you what currency to think in.

A revenue authority maintaining a parallel US dollar PAYE scale, and defaulting to it for mixed pay, is describing a dollar economy. That is why every cost figure on this page is a dollar figure even though Zimbabwe has a local currency.

Source: ZIMRA — PAYE explained

The transfer tax weighs more on a small income than a large one.

IMTT is charged on the movement of money, not on income, so it is proportionally heavier on someone moving their whole salary in small electronic amounts than on someone moving a large sum once. In a city of low and often informal incomes that is part of why cash persists.

Source: ZIMRA — Public Notice 9 of 2024, Finance Act 13 of 2023 highlights

Common mistakes to avoid

Expecting a lower income tax because the address is cheaper — PAYE is national.
Forgetting the 3% AIDS levy on the tax due when modelling net pay.
Inheriting the previous occupant's municipal arrears by not opening the rates account in your own name.
Travelling to a ZIMRA office in Harare for something that can be done through your employer.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.

Make it your personal checklist

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