Sars nets R900 million in tax revenue from non-compliant churches & luxury car owners

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) on Monday said that specialized auditors had assessed 33 churches netting over R740 million in tax revenue.

Luxury vehicles owners have also yielded R160 million. Sars auditors targeted owners and entities who were not tax compliant.

This was revealed in the Sars preliminary tax revenue collection report released by commissioner Edward Kieswetter last week.

Sars collected over R1.5 trillion between April last year and March.

A substantial amount of this came from a variety of sources, including non-compliant churches and wealthy individuals with a penchant for fancy cars.

Sars auditors looked at 35 cases involving churches or religious institutions, which netted R742 million.

Sars said that the findings on these institutions covered a wide range of misrepresentations of the true nature of income and expenses of the entities and individuals involved.

The auditors also conducted 25 lifestyle audit cases with a value of R474 million. The lifestyle audits involved mainly individuals where their lifestyle did not match their tax declarations.

In his latest weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa commended Sars, saying that it was well-established that the so-called “taxman” was one of the most efficient tools to combat corruption.

-EWN

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