ROB ROSE: New migraine for British American Tobacco
If the world’s second-largest tobacco company thought its tax problems in SA had disappeared, it should think again
It’s been a long time coming, but the ghosts of tax liabilities past seem to be catching up with British American Tobacco (BAT). This week, it emerged that the SA Revenue Service (Sars) sent a letter to BAT’s SA arm in October 2018 in which Mark Kingon — who was acting commissioner at that stage — levied a demand for R143m. PODCAST: Listen to more commentary on the topic. Subscribe: iono.fm | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Player.fm Rather more important than the money, though, is this line in the letter: the commissioner "is of the prima facie view that BAT SA did not disclose all material facts when requested by the auditors during the audit". Sars goes on to use all sorts of nasty words, such as "nondisclosure" and "misrepresentation", and even accuses BAT of making "a false declaration" — all of which led to a loss to the fiscus.Admittedly BAT is a tobacco company, but is this the behaviour you’d expect from an entity that holds media conferences to bemoan how illicit...
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