SARS is going after taxpayers with these assets in South Africa
The National Treasury plans to further target wealthy taxpayers in the coming year as part of a broader disclosure of wealth programme.
In its budget review published on Wednesday (23 February), Treasury said that provisional taxpayers with business interests are currently required to declare their assets, based on their cost, and liabilities in their tax returns each year.
“To assist with the detection of non‐compliance or fraud through the existence of unexplained wealth, it is proposed that all provisional taxpayers with assets above R50 million be required to declare specified assets and liabilities at market values in their 2023 tax returns,” it said.
“The additional information will also help in determining the levels and structure of wealth holdings as recommended by the Davis Tax Committee.”
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has previously indicated that it will target non-compliant wealthy taxpayers with assets overseas.
In July 2021, the tax agency sent letters to 275 wealthy individuals who have financial assets abroad under the new high High Wealth Individual (HWI) Taxpayer Segment.
SARS believes that local taxpayers have assets of more than R400 billion stashed offshore. In February 2021, it set up a separate wealth unit to focus on individual taxpayers with wealth and complex financial arrangements.
“We will be offering a differentiated service, as we do with other tax types, to the individuals with significant wealth, often derived from multiple sources other than a salary and who employ complex, and often offshore, financial arrangements,” Kieswetter said at the launch.
“We believe that statements of assets and liabilities often say more about their financial affairs than statements of income. SARS is on a journey to foster a culture of voluntary compliance. Consequently, we have been paying particular attention to taxpayers with undeclared offshore holdings to optimise compliance.”
Read: SARS is fining taxpayers who didn’t review their auto-assessments
Loading ...