Banking, Money and Taxes in Zambia

The currency in Zambia is known as the kwacha meaning ‘sunrise’ or ‘good morning’ depending on who you ask. The banknotes come in denominations of K20, K100, K500, K1,000, K5,000, K10,000, K20,000 and K50,000, with a K1,000 referred to as a ‘pin’ and a K10,000 note as a ‘ten pin’.
 

There are plenty of ATMs in Lusaka, but almost none in the rural areas. Don’t count on a particular ATM working. It’s worth planning expenditure ahead of time because of this unreliability.
 

Money changing can be expensive in Zambian bureaux de change, especially with Euros which can elicit a charge of as much as 25 percent. Dollars should be brought into the country in notes of $50 and up, as there is a higher fee charged for changing small notes.
 

Visa is the dominant credit card service in Zambia, and MasterCard or American Express cards are not widely accepted. Additionally, most places that accept credit or debit cards are relatively expensive and buying cash goods is usually cheaper. Even with the higher costs, many places lay on an additional 5 percent charge for their bank costs.

Travellers cheques are almost impossible to process in Zambia and the rates are poor. Furthermore, American Express are the only traveller's cheques recognised.

While it is possible to open a bank account in Zambia, for all intents and purposes it may be safer and easier to use an international bank (such as Barclays) which has a branch in the country. The documents needed to open an account are an identification document and a payslip. Banking regulations in Zambia lag somewhat behind the rest of the world and the bureaucracy, and thus form filling, is somewhat less convoluted than in many other places.
 

Income taxes, in Zambia run at around 30 percent, cheaper than most European nations. Corporate tax is higher, and there is a specialised mining tax, mainly because it is business taxes that fund government programs.