SARS MUST SHARPEN UP
CARMEL RICKARD: You think Sars isn’t messing up? Read this
This week’s In Good Faith column is free to read. For years South Africans were grudgingly proud of their tax collector’s efficiency. Now there are signs that this is deteriorating to a disturbing extent
Is "gross inadequacy" the new norm for tax officials handling disputes headed to court? And is the "inexcusable" behaviour, roundly criticised by the tax court this week, confirmation that the SA Revenue Service (Sars) has been infected by SA’s general civil service contagion? In this newest judgment by the tax court on "S Company" — the court maintains a coy disguise even when, as in this case, the identity of the taxpayer is not hard to find — several issues were before the court, but of most general interest is the behaviour of Sars in handling the taxpayer’s query. After a lengthy back and forth correspondence about Sars’s decisions on its 2005-2012 assessments, "S Company" filed notice of appeal in January this year. Sars had 45 days to deliver a statement explaining the grounds of its assessments and opposing the appeal. But that deadline passed with no word from the revenue service. Instead, at the end of the 45 days, Sars’s Victor Masola invited the company’s tax consultant ...
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