SARS warns of fraudsters
“Tax consultants” or intermediaries, promise clients substantial tax refunds, often in return for a ‘cut’ of up to 50 percent of the refund.
SARS is appealing for taxpayers to be cautious if they are approached by “tax advisors” who guarantee them a tax refund on submission of their income tax returns.
Anyone who guarantees a taxpayer a tax refund may be misleading them and should be avoided.
This warning follows after an increase in fraud cases involving personal income tax returns where “tax consultants”, or intermediaries, promise clients substantial tax refunds, often in return for a ‘cut’ of up to 50 percent of the refund.
The fraudsters then submit fraudulent tax returns on behalf of the taxpayer to SARS.
The activities of suspected syndicates are particularly prevalent at this time as the deadline of November 22 approaches for the 2013 tax season.
In September, SARS with the assistance of the SAPS, conducted raids in Mpumalanga which resulted in the arrests of 28 people who had submitted fraudulent income tax returns on behalf of at least 200 individuals.
Investigations are underway to determine whether those arrested were tax practitioners.
The total amount of fraudulent claims in these cases amounted to just over R7-million.
In these cases, taxpayers were persuaded by the suspected fraudsters to hand over personal information like bank account numbers, their log-on details and passwords for eFiling so that revised tax returns could be submitted on behalf of the taxpayer and fraudulent refunds claimed.
While the criminal prosecutions against the 28 individuals will be pursued before court, SARS is also in the process of taking civil action to recover fraudulent refunds from the taxpayers involved.
Anyone who is unsure about how to submit their tax return can look into the following options for assistance.
- Those who are registered for eFiling can make use of the Help-You-eFile function on the eFiling website. This allows taxpayers to be in direct contact with a SARS Call Centre agent while they complete their tax return online. With permission from the taxpayer, the facility enables the Call Centre agent to access the taxpayer’s eFiling browsing session at the same time as the taxpayer to see exactly what the taxpayer is seeing
- Taxpayers who are unable to use eFiling, or who do not feel confident in doing so, can visit any SARS branch with all the relevant documents. A SARS official will then submit their tax return electronically, on their behalf, free of charge
