The Minister of Finance’s avoidance of probing written questions put forward by the FF Plus with regard to the delays in the repayment of VAT to numerous businesses, raises the serious question of whether the state capture is also a threat to the South African Revenue Service (SARS), says adv. Anton Alberts, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson for Finance.
According to adv. Alberts, none of the questions by the FF Plus were answered. The questions were simply evaded with the statement that the tax Ombudsman is currently busy with an investigation into the matter. (Please see the questions and answers attached).
“This evasive answer and the failure to provide satisfactory answers to the other questions by the FF Plus are indicative of a worrisome situation at SARS. It speaks for itself and it sends red lights flashing.
“The economy is currently suffering due to the Gupta’s state capture of the treasury and various small businesses are actually keeping the economy going because they are currently creating jobs on a large scale. Now it seems like SARS is playing a huge role in destroying such small businesses because it is holding on to VAT money that legally belongs to the said businesses.
“The FF Plus is going to request that the Ombudsman launch an investigation into the matter to determine how many businesses are affected, how many people have been laid-off and how many businesses had to eventually close their doors due to this situation at SARS,” says adv. Alberts.
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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NUMBER: 1377 [NW1519E]
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 26 MAY 2017
1377. Adv A de W Alberts (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of Finance: †
With reference to the collection of tax and value-added tax (VAT) by the SA Revenue Service (SARS), (a) what is the number of VAT refunds for the (i) five most recent tax years and (ii) current tax year that have not yet been made or that have in fact been made but were made late, and that were owed by SARS, (b) what is the number of VAT refunds, expressed as (i) a number and (ii) a percentage of the total, that have not yet been made or that were made late in each specified tax year, (c) what are the reasons for any refunds that were made late or were not made, and (d) what is the number of persons to whom VAT refunds were owed and audited by SARS, expressed as (i) a number and (ii) a percentage of the number, in relation to those persons to whom VAT refunds were not owed?NW1519E
REPLY:
(a)(i)(ii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(d)(i)(ii)
The OTO announced earlier this year that they will be launching an investigation with regards to the refund processes administered by SARS to better understand the challenges, risks and complexity associated with the process. The investigation is currently underway and SARS is committed to working with the OTO to give them the required insight into the process so that they will be able to satisfactorily give feedback to the public on their findings.
SARS would want the current investigation underway to first be concluded before additional responses to the topic at hand is made as this stage.
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