News / National
Zimra raid doctors bank accounts
17 Jan 2016 at 07:47hrs | Views
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has raided and garnished medical practitioner's bank accounts for income tax payments that they are owed by PSMAS despite the medical aid society failing to pay them in three years.
Medical practitioners operating private surgeries and hospitals in Bulawayo, Gweru and Masvingo had their accounts garnished by Zimra without prior warning.
According to Sunday News, the taxman also came hard on doctors for alleged under-declaring incomes after they failed to declare incomes that include the money that was owed by PSMAS.
A practitioner who spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of victimisation said he was owed over $500 000 by PSMAS dating back to 2013 but Zimra had already garnished 25 percent income tax and fined the practitioner 50 percent for under-declaring income when he did not include the money owed to them by PSMAS as income.
The practitioner said Zimra was not taking into cognisance that PSMAS has not been remitting money for services offered to their clients in 2015 and owed many medical practitioners since 2013.
"What happens is that we send invoices to our respective clients for the medical bills. These include medical aid societies that we do business with. The money that we claim is not always the money we get from these medical practitioners because of the conditionalities attached to their medial aids. In some instances we get far much less than the money we claim.
"The money that we get from these medical aid societies are revealed to us in form of remittance advice, which is a document that shows the actual money that you are going to receive and the form of treatments that are covered by their respective medical aids. Zimra does not work with figures on remittance advices but the claim forms where we claim more than what we get. We then lose much," said the practitioner.
Added another, : "If we give services to patients who pay through medical aids, we are supposed to receive our payments within 60 days. PSMAS has gone for three years now without remitting money to us. This has been worsened by Government which at some point was withholding its money paid by civil servants.
"Now most medical practitioners are shunning civil servants because if they offer their services to them they will not receive their payments yet Zimra garnishes the money from our accounts and goes on to fine us for under-declaring income despite that we did not receive the payments. We are left with no option but to turn Government employees away because we are losing on both ends."
Medical practitioners operating private surgeries and hospitals in Bulawayo, Gweru and Masvingo had their accounts garnished by Zimra without prior warning.
According to Sunday News, the taxman also came hard on doctors for alleged under-declaring incomes after they failed to declare incomes that include the money that was owed by PSMAS.
A practitioner who spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of victimisation said he was owed over $500 000 by PSMAS dating back to 2013 but Zimra had already garnished 25 percent income tax and fined the practitioner 50 percent for under-declaring income when he did not include the money owed to them by PSMAS as income.
The practitioner said Zimra was not taking into cognisance that PSMAS has not been remitting money for services offered to their clients in 2015 and owed many medical practitioners since 2013.
"What happens is that we send invoices to our respective clients for the medical bills. These include medical aid societies that we do business with. The money that we claim is not always the money we get from these medical practitioners because of the conditionalities attached to their medial aids. In some instances we get far much less than the money we claim.
"The money that we get from these medical aid societies are revealed to us in form of remittance advice, which is a document that shows the actual money that you are going to receive and the form of treatments that are covered by their respective medical aids. Zimra does not work with figures on remittance advices but the claim forms where we claim more than what we get. We then lose much," said the practitioner.
Added another, : "If we give services to patients who pay through medical aids, we are supposed to receive our payments within 60 days. PSMAS has gone for three years now without remitting money to us. This has been worsened by Government which at some point was withholding its money paid by civil servants.
"Now most medical practitioners are shunning civil servants because if they offer their services to them they will not receive their payments yet Zimra garnishes the money from our accounts and goes on to fine us for under-declaring income despite that we did not receive the payments. We are left with no option but to turn Government employees away because we are losing on both ends."
Source - Sunday News
