Author: Jean du Toit
The new Draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill (“TALAB”), released on 31 July 2020, proposes a law change that will effectively lower the threshold for SARS and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to criminally prosecute taxpayers. The proposed amendment The proposed amendment is directed at paragraph 30 of the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act, section 58 of the Value-Added Tax Act and section 234 of the Tax Administration Act. All of these provisions cater for offences committed by taxpayers. More importantly, all of them provide that a taxpayer will be guilty of a criminal offence if they “wilfully…
It seems the SARS Commissioner had an epiphany – make an example of delinquent taxpayers so others will fall in line. Apparently, following SARS’ media briefing on 30 July 2020, this is a deterrence tactic SARS will use in the coming filing season. Why have SARS never done this before? Surely, this is not new wisdom; why have SARS never done this before? We have asked this question ourselves many times – with many reports of tax evasion in the media, including some high-profile unanswered cases emerging from the multitude of commissions of inquiry, why have we not seen anyone…