2 March 2006
Pretoria - The South African Revenue Service (SARS) cautions all taxpayers
to be on the lookout for a fraudulent scheme aimed at extorting money from
businesses in the Johannesburg area.
SARS has received information from businesses that an individual, purporting
to be a SARS official, visited two business premises in the south of
Johannesburg recently.
The suspect demanded payments of R5 000 and R8 000 from two business owners
in exchange for a âCompliance Clearance Slipâ. This fraudulent document was
issued for a period of five years. The document contains a fraudulent SARS
stamp and was issued by the âAudit Section (0773), Receiver of Revenueâ.
No such unit exists in SARS.
SARS officials do from time to time engage in site visits and inspections of
business premises. However, taxpayers can be assured that the following
protocols or guidelines will always be adhered to:
* A SARS official will not visit a business premises alone. If inspections
or visits are done, they are undertaken by teams
* Officials will always produce SARS identification and provide businesses with
an office telephone number to confirm their identities
* SARS does not issue âCompliance Clearance Slipsâ. An authentic Tax Clearance
Certificate is issued only at a SARS Branch, office as the taxpayerâs file has
to be examined electronically on the SARS system
* A Tax Clearance Certificate is valid for up to one year and is issued based
on past behaviour by the taxpayer
* No taxpayer should ever pay over cash to a SARS official other than at a SARS
Branch office or into an approved SARS account at a commercial bank
* Every Tax Clearance Certificate that SARS issues has a unique identifier
number which enables a taxpayer to question its validity at any SARS Branch
office. These certificates are issued free to compliant taxpayers.
SARS requests the public to be vigilant and keep SARS informed of such scams
through the SARS Fraud and Anti-Corruption hotline 0800 00 28 70.
Enquiries:
Adrian Lackay
SARS Communications
Tel: (012) 422 4206
Cell: 083 388 2580
Issued by: South African Revenue Service
2 March 2006
