EDITORIAL: South African Revenue Service the victim as King wins
DAVE King has emerged as the victor in his dispute with the South African Revenue Service (SARS). Yes, he has to pay an eye-watering R706m to the tax authorities in addition to the R3.6m in fines after pleading guilty to 41 counts of contravening the Income Tax Act, and a further R8.75m to the Asset Forfeiture Unit. And he had to make a fairly creepy “apology”. But where he once faced a possible jail term, he now is, instead, a free man.Even the apologetic words about how he should have co-operated sooner with SARS and how they are “approachable to any taxpayer” were not that embarrassing in truth and most people would understand they were uttered as part of a deal. This is, after all, the man who not so long ago was saying SARS was trying to extort money from him and that its pursuit of him was nothing more than a personal vendetta after he had criticised the then commissioner and now finance minister, Pravin Gordhan.Of course, for every winner there must be a loser.In this case it...
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