Kieswetter: Sars making steady progress clamping down on tax fraudsters
South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Edward Kieswetter said that the revenue service had recovered R3 billion from fraudsters to date.
CAPE TOWN - South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Edward Kieswetter said that the revenue service was making steady progress in clamping down on tax fraudsters.
Speaking on the side-lines of the budget speech in Parliament, Kieswetter revealed that R3 billion was recovered to date.
Tabling the national budget, Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana revised tax revenue upwards to R1.7 trillion - R94 billion higher than previously projected.
READ: Budget 2023 - everything you need to know
For the first time in 15 years, revenue exceeded non-interest spending.
Kieswetter said that Sars was focusing its investigations on both individual taxpayers and syndicates.
It was pursuing 829 cases against individuals, and of those, 178 were handed over for prosecution.
"The good news is that 94 cases that we have finalised, we’ve had a 97.8% conviction rate. In other words, 92 of those cases have been found guilty and prison sentences have been issued."
READ: Sars nets R900m in tax revenue from non-compliant churches, luxury car owners
Kieswetter said that there was a proliferation of syndicates working in tax-evasion schemes.
Sars is currently working on 413 cases, half of which were at a far advanced stage of investigation.
"Progress, I think, is slow but steady… We would rather move through this more thoroughly, so that we can secure successful convictions."
Sars was also auditing 46 cases linked to state capture.
READ: Sars state capture ops alone contributed R4 billion to fiscus - Kieswetter
