GladAfrica assets attached over R88 million Sars debt

The sheriff of the court will attach assets of GladAfrica Management Services after the South African Revenue Service (Sars) obtained a civil judgment and writ of execution against the company because it submitted pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) and value-added tax (VAT) returns without paying the money to Sars.

GladAfrica is a multi-disciplinary, built-environment consultancy. Sars said in a statement that the company’s failure to pay resulted in a debt of R88 million. The matter was escalated to the Sars PAYE rapid response team.

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The company and the Sars team had a few meetings in May and August, but it seems that this did not help, as a writ of execution was issued on Tuesday. The sheriff will now attach the company’s assets.

According to Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter, one of the strategic objectives at Sars was to make it hard and costly for taxpayers who did not comply with their tax obligations.

“Sars is becoming increasingly aware of the tendency by companies to submit returns without making the corresponding payments. Such non-compliance will not be tolerated as it is a serious threat to the revenue collection mandate of Sars.”

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Kieswetter warned companies and directors that Sars would take all action legally possible to ensure compliance and VAT and PAYE payments.

“As per third party agreement, PAYE is collected from employees on behalf of Sars and is not for the benefit of the company. To then use collected tax for other purposes is a criminal offence,” Kieswetter said.