{"id":705455,"date":"2023-07-20T08:51:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T06:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=705455"},"modified":"2023-07-20T08:52:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T06:52:26","slug":"sars-knows-everything-about-your-bank-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/705455\/sars-knows-everything-about-your-bank-account\/","title":{"rendered":"SARS knows everything about your bank account"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A recent High Court case has shown just how much information the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has on taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In CSARS v M<\/em>, the revenue service won big in a case where the taxman challenged a taxpayer on what was on their tax return and bank account did not match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tax Consulting SA said that this case is a hallmark example of how SARS knows everything about your bank account and how to use the information against taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the tax firm, SARS made it easy for the High Court and presented its case as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

SARS identified deposits received by the taxpayer into his Investec and Nedbank bank accounts, as well as payments received from FX Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These did not make it to the tax return, and SARS computed that roughly R4.5 million was undeclared. They also charged interest and penalties thereon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everyone now knows that information from\u00a0financial institutions, estate agents, car dealerships etc, is not confidential. This is often conveniently ignored until SARS goes right back and digs into the past.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To stay on top of this, Tax Consulting SA said it is key to always retain exceptional records. Even where the 5-year record-keeping requirement has passed, taxpayers with higher incomes do themselves no favours by not keeping impeccable records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When questioned by SARS on matters that date so far back – the taxpayer bears the burden of evidentiary proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also why in the recent case, the court decided that SARS was correct in raising the taxes – not because SARS proved its assessment was correct, but because the taxpayer could not discharge the legal burden of proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A taxpayer can avoid the imposition of penalties by approaching SARS with a valid voluntary disclosure through the ongoing Voluntary Disclosure Programme (VDP) administered by SARS and regulated by the Tax Administration Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A valid VDP application also importantly ensures that the taxpayer enjoys full immunity from criminal prosecution, Tax Consulting SA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taxpayers must keep in mind the fact that they have a duty to discharge the burden of proof in respect of proving whether an amount is taxable or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A prudent taxpayer will thus always ensure that they keep adequate documentation in order to discharge the burden of proof,” Tax Consulting said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read:<\/strong> D-Day for interest rates in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent court case highlights the amount of information SARS has on the everyday taxpayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":674015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26,12796],"class_list":["post-705455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-headline","tag-tax-consulting-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705455"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705483,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705455\/revisions\/705483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}