2 April 2006
Pretoria - The South African Revenue Service (SARS) welcomes the judgment on
Friday by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) of South Africa in the matter
involving the businessman, Mr Dave King.
The SCA unanimously overturned a previous judgment of the Pretoria High
Court handed down in January 2005, by Judge E Patel, wherein an order for the
liquidation of Hawker Air Services Pty (Ltd) (HAS), a company of which King is
a current director (launched in December 2003) was refused. A provisional
sequestration order for the estate of the partnership, in which HAS was a
partner, was also denied.
The abovementioned ruling by Judge Patel, which the SCA overturned, resulted
in a three year delay in the finalisation of Value Added Tax (VAT) collections,
to the detriment of SARS and the fiscus. It was further found that the
criticism of the Commissioner of SARS and his officials by Judge Patel is
unjustified. Judge Patelâs findings regarding the unconstitutionality of
certain statutory provisions of laws administered by SARS, were also
overturned.
SARS furthermore endorses the learned judgesâ views, as stated in the SCA
media release: âAt the centre are the tax debts of nearly R2.5 billion the
Commissioner claims Mr Dave King, the sole director of HAS, and a number of
parties connected to him owe â and the Commissionerâs attempts over the last
four years to ensure that HASâ principal asset, its interest in a Falcon B900
jet aircraft, remains available for the partial satisfaction of that and other
tax debts.â
Consequently, the SCA has ordered the final liquidation of HAS, and the
provisional sequestration of the partnership and afforded SARS the cost of two
counsels.
SARS feels vindicated by the judgment and confident that the judgment is not
only paramount to the King matter, but sends a strong message of greater
compliance with the tax laws that SARS administers. SARS is confident that this
is an important step in ensuring current and future tax compliance by high nett
worth individuals, like Mr Dave King and his associated companies. It also
serves as an indication that the tax net is closing in on those who continue to
challenge the tax laws in this country.
For further media enquires please contact: Adrian Lackay
SARS communications
Tel (012) 422 4206
Cell: 083 388 2580
Issued by: South African Revenue Service
2 April 2006
