/ 14 November 1997

Quarter of SA businesses evade tax

FRIDAY, 1.30PM:

The tax blitz by the South African Revenue Services last month revealed 26% of the businesses they visited were not registered to pay tax.

The blitz, carried out on Tax Awareness day last month, targeted 42 114 businesses countrywide. Northern Province and Mpumalanga were found to be the worst offenders, with 53% of the businesses visited unregistered. In the Western and Northern Cape, 30% of businesses were unregistered.

Gauteng’s businesses had a 26% rate of evasion, and KwaZulu-Natal had 24%.

The blitz was part of SARS’s attempts to broaden the country’s tax base, and make sure that everybody contributes.