Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 17-04-2018
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has embarked on a new initiative with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to prosecute non-compliant taxpayers, including prominent South Africans, who have failed to submit returns.
Sars says taxpayers who are found guilty will end up with a criminal record.
In a statement, the tax authority says the initiative has already seen its first conviction in Port Shepstone last week.
“Failure to submit a tax or VAT return is a criminal offence in terms of the Tax Administration Act and Value-Added Tax legislation.”
The tax authority says the campaign marks an intensification of SARS’s Outstanding Returns Project that was launched towards the end of last year when SARS aimed to raise awareness amongst taxpayers about outstanding tax returns.
Sars says at the end of March 2018, its Outstanding Returns Book showed that active taxpayers owed the tax authority approximately 30 million returns, in many cases showing that multiple outstanding returns were due by a single taxpayer.
It says the decision to resort to enforcement of compliance through criminal prosecution is a last resort.
“All the taxpayers that will appear in court were engaged beforehand and final demands were issued them before the criminal cases commenced. At this stage 36 dockets have been handed over to the NPA.”
The significant drop in the submission of returns was one of the key indicators pointing to decreased compliance and was highlighted by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene during the announcement of the tax revenue collection figures for the 2017/2018 financial year.
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