FALSE TAX RETURNS ACCUSED FOUND GUILTY BY THE COURT
The Specialised Commercial Crime Court(SCCC) in Kimberley has sentenced Batsha Batirong Financial Management PTY(LTD) (accused one) and the company Director Zo Marius Bocks (54) (accused 2), the company and its director were charged with two counts of contravention of section 235(1)a of the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011. On 11 April 2019, accused one and accused two, made or caused or allowed false submission of VAT 201 return and CTI-14 return(wherein PAYE credit was claimed without reasonable grounds to believe the same to be true) to be submitted to SARS.
Due to these claims, on count one the accused claimed undue VAT refund of over 8 million rands and SARS suffered potential prejudice in the abovementioned amount. Count 2 relates to claiming an undue PAYE refund of over 13 million rands, whereby SARS suffered potential prejudice of the same amount. Even though the SARS never paid the money, and the accused did not receive the claimed amounts from the Revenue Service, the accused were found guilty by the Specialised Commercial Crime Court, for making undue false claims. The company as well as the company Director were convicted and sentenced as follows, both counts were taken together for sentence. Accused 1 was sentenced to a fine of R 200 000 and accused 2 to a fine of R 600 000 – or 5 years imprisonment.
National Prosecuting Authority welcomes this imperative sentence, which evidently will send a clear message to the citizens that they should refrain from submitting false Tax Returns as they will be arrested and sentenced accordingly.
