A Sars auditor was instructed to reduce Durban businesswoman Shauwn Mpisane's tax bill, a Durban court heard.
|||Durban - A SA Revenue Service (Sars) tax auditor was instructed to reduce Durban businesswoman Shauwn Mpisane's tax bill, the Durban Regional Court heard on Friday.
Sars auditor Waheeda Osman testified that she received instructions from her manager in January 2011 to reduce Mpisane's tax on a R47 million dividend declared by her firm, Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance, and Transport CC, in 2008.
She said this had followed a review of her work by a senior colleague.
“The reduced assessment was processed by me in January 2011,” she said.
Osman's testimony on an internal investigation into that review of her work and its outcome, following the reduced assessment, was struck from the record after an objection from Rafiq Bhana, SC, for Mpisane.
He contested her evidence about the internal investigation, saying it was hearsay because she was not a part of the internal investigation.
The court heard that Mpisane's business had declared a dividend of R10.5 million in 2007 and in the following year it had declared a R47m dividend.
Mpisane is accused of inflating invoices by more than R5m in a bid to cut her tax bill.
Osman told the court on Friday that she had conducted an audit on the amount of value added tax (VAT) that Zikhulise was required to pay Sars in the 2010 tax year and found it had underpaid Sars by R4.76m.
She said Sars reached that figure by examining invoices the department of public works and the eThekwini municipality had received from Zikhulise.
VAT returns had to be submitted monthly and not yearly like income tax returns, she said.
Late payment of VAT would incur a 10 percent penalty, while VAT evasion would incur a 200 percent penalty, while VAT evasion would incur a 200 percent additional tax.
The case was adjourned to Monday. - Sapa