EDITORIAL: SARS needs an audit — fast
The vital relationship between SARS and its parent ministry has largely broken down since Tom Moyane’s arrival
The ever more conflictual relationship between the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and its parent ministry cannot be good for SARS as an institution or for the country and its public purse. Until President Jacob Zuma appointed Tom Moyane as SARS commissioner in 2014, the revenue service had always had a close and more than cordial relationship with the finance minister and the Treasury. That close working relationship is a crucial one if the Treasury is to be apprised accurately of the tax trends and tax issues, enabling it to shape appropriate policy and to forecast revenue collections accurately — the revenue collections that enable the government to spend hundreds of billions of rand each year on social services and economic infrastructure to support SA’s growth and development. That close relationship is crucial, too, if SARS is to be set revenue targets by the Treasury which it can achieve and if it is then to be supported in its efforts to achieve those, and be made accou...
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