SARS targets dodgy tax practitioners 
22 August 2008

Telita Snyckers, head of the tax practitioners unit at SARS, said aside from noncompliance in their personal capacities as taxpayers, these practitioners, representing 4-million taxpayers, often acted as facilitators of crime. “Practitioners who act unprofessionally have an unfair advantage over their more compliant colleagues, and unfairly tarnish the reputations of their more compliant colleagues,” she said.

This month saw a 10-year plea-bargain deal for Bloemfontein bookkeeper Magdelena Lorandi for defrauding a company of R745067.

A Limpopo accountant, George Sekhukhune, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for registering nine clients’ businesses as VAT vendors without their knowledge, and then pocketing more than R1m in five years. Lorandi was out on bail on 300 counts of fraud at the time, and had not revealed to the court that she had served two jail sentences for crimes committed in the 1990s . That was discovered only during her bail application, and it contributed to her sentence.

Lorandi failed to pay money to SARS that she had received from a client for tax purposes, and altered documents given to SARS to decrease her client’s tax liability. She was found out after her client queried his tax return with SARS. The case against Lorandi involving 300 counts of fraud has still to be heard. Snyckers said SARS was targeting practitioners because a significant number of taxpayers relied on them to prepare their submissions and for advice on tax-related matters.

“Practitioners play a critical role in shaping taxpayers’ attitudes and behaviours, and in defining their actual levels of compliance,” she said.

Chantelle Benjamin,  www.businessday.co.za