Walter Magaya’s Prophetic Healing and Deliverance, (PHD) Ministries has denied allegations of tax evasion saying that all what the church realized in selling anointing oil and other stuff were donations from the church members.
The church is being prosecuted for failing to pay tax to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority ( Zimra), after investigations proved that PHD Ministries made millions from selling church products including anointing oil, t-shirts, wrist bands and other products in the name of “anointing” from the “prophet”.
In its defense read to the court, Admire Rubaya and Everson Chatambudza on the instruction, said all the money which the state is alleging the church raised was all from the donations and that the goods are exempted from tax.
“The accused only received donations, tithes, offerings and contributions from its members and other allegations that it failed to withhold employees tax for Tendai Magaya, the wife to Magaya and Magaya’s alleged remuneration in the total sum of $954 522.99 and $2 403 658.24 respectively,” he said.
However, Tinashe Madakadze the chief investing officer at Zimra crushed the defense saying that PHD is a tax payer according to his investigations.
He told the court in his testimony that Magaya’s church was registered with Zimra as a tax payer on 20 October 2014.
He also said that during the registration, PHD Ministries said that they were involved in selling various products printed the church name and that in the Value Added Tax form they signed on 26 February 2016 it shows that they are selling taxable goods.
