MONDAY, 6.00PM:
THE Receiver of Revenue has demanded more than R600000 in unpaid taxes from a computer company that handled R40-million worth of provincial contracts.
African Eye News Service reports that Mayibuye Computer Services has laid off most of its technical computer staff, has failed to pay its remaining staff since January, and is attempting to fight off liquidation and repossession orders by Nedbank.
The Receiver’s demand follows a two-day forensic audit of Mayibuye in February after the company was initially accused of tax evasion and possible fraud worth R180000.
The claim was adjusted to R600000 this month after its was revealed that auditors were shown only financial records for Mayibuye’s operations in Mpumalanga.
The company, created in 1995 with a large government tender by two former government employees and an ANC activist, has also handled substantial contracts for provincial governments and parastatals such as Telkom.
Mayibuye Gauteng general manager and shareholder Venn Parsonson admitted on Monday that the company had failed to pay Value Added Tax Unemployment Insurance and Pay As You Earn levies to the Receiver despite deducting the amounts from staff salaries and client invoices. He insisted, however, that the evasion had not been deliberate, but was rather due to a perceived lack of urgency by the company’s contracted accountant.
Mayibuye is currently being investigated by Mpumalanga for supplying the province’s legislature and environmental affairs department with part of a R1,3 million shipment of incompatible computers.