Tag: National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) continues to face challenges in collecting receivables and addressing disputes with taxpayers. The SARS Annual Report for 2023/24 highlights intensified efforts in tax debt collection and dispute resolution. SARS is implementing new strategies and refining processes to tackle challenges in enforcing tax compliance.

The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) brings to the attention of all accountable institutions, important information regarding penalties and administrative sanctions for non-compliance. This information applies also to those institutions included on Schedule 1 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 2001 (Act 38 of 2001) since December 2022.

The Unaccountables skilfully profiles the large corporations and private individuals implicated in economic crime and never held to account. This book will anger many, who will be able to put names and faces to those behind some of South Africa’s biggest corruption scandals, from apartheid to state capture.

The 2022 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) was tabled to Parliament on 26 October 2022 by South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.

President Ramaphosa delivered the Nation Address on Thursday evening from the Cape Town City Hall, as the country struggles with an ailing economy, civil unrest, corona virus, state capture and a promise-weary public.

In recent weeks we have seen first-hand the powers of SARS in holding taxpayers criminally liable where their tax affairs are not in order.

During the years of President Jacob Zuma’s leadership, the country experienced many great governance challenges which played out in the courts and the public domain. The Public Protector at the time  - Ms. Thuli Madonsela - appeared to be winning the battle against corruption, notwithstanding the great odds that she was facing.

The B-BBEE commission sent an unflinching message to entities attempting to circumvent their transformation responsibilities: there is zero tolerance for entities involved in fronting and/or misrepresentation of their Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) status and such activities will lead to criminal investigation and prosecution.

The captain of Ship SA, President Cyril Ramaphosa, can surely see the iceberg that we are heading for and one can almost hear the call go out for us to 'brace for impact'. The iceberg is an economy that is in crisis – an unemployment rate of 42% (using the expanded definition), GDP growth projections down by 7.8%, tax revenue projections at R304 billion less than originally budgeted for, a budget deficit of R709 billion for 2020/21, a current debt to GPD level of 81.8% and debt service costs (interest) currently amounting to 21c in every tax Rand collected.

Considering the high profile scandals that have dominated news headlines in the last few years, from VBS Mutual Bank to Eskom, it does not seem unreasonable to say that South Africa may have a corporate fraud problem. What’s more, the accounting irregularities that led to shareholders being defrauded and losing significant shareholder value, may have been entirely preventable if the internal auditors had been more empowered, protected and held to the same level of accountability as external auditors, via appropriate regulation of the internal audit industry.