Starting on Wednesday, businesses in 30 towns and cities across South Africa will be checked for tax compliance and briefed on the government’s tax amnesty, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said.
Spokesperson Adrian Lackay said about 10 000 Sars officials and police officers will check if enterprises are on the business register, and inform them of the tax amnesty.
The amnesty started in August 2006 and expires on May 31.
It allows for the scrapping of outstanding taxes with no prosecution against businesses with an annual turnover of less than R10-million.
”The initiative will extend over the next few weeks until the amnesty deadline,” Lackay said. ”What we’re saying is that there is an amnesty you can make use of and if not, we’ll prosecute you.”
Lackay said Sars had received 30 000 applications for amnesty, but the response from businesses had been slow.
Sars had picked up ”a lot” of cases of non-compliance where warrants of arrest had been issued but not executed for outstanding returns or moneys owed.
The warrants were consolidated last week and 12 people appeared in court in Gauteng and 40 are due to appear in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday, he said.
Charges are the criminal offence of non-submission of tax returns and contempt of court.
The Gauteng dozen were released and a trial date set for June for the criminal charge.
Lackay said people who had warrants who demonstrated a willingness to resolve their affairs with Sars could also take advantage of the amnesty process to settle outstanding taxes. — Sapa