NON-COMPLIANT taxpayers have been warned, as the South African Revenue Service (SARS) will start to prosecute them. SARS has embarked on a new initiative with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) which will see taxpayers who are found guilty ending up with a criminal record.
In a statement SARS said: “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 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 among taxpayers about outstanding tax returns.”
The initiative has already seen its first conviction in Port Shepstone last week.
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SARS added that the increase in the non-submission of returns across all tax types is what compelled them to resort to this enforcement.
“At the end of March 2018, SARS’ Outstanding Returns Book showed that active taxpayers owed SARS approximately 30 million returns, in many cases showing that multiple outstanding returns were due by a single taxpayer. 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,” added SARS.
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