MBABANE – The Eswatini Revenue Authority has uncovered a cross-border tax scam involving 38 employees. All of the conspirators have been fired, after they peddled false promises to freight handlers to reduce, defer or eliminate tax liabilities for goods coming across the border from South Africa. The malfeasance dated back to 2011, said ERA Commissioner General Dumisani Masilela in a statement. “Most of the transgressions involved avoidance of prepayments at borders. ERA agents also colluded with taxpayers on Tax Compliance Certificates,” said Masilela. The activity was mostly, although not always, carried out at the main border crossings such as Oshoek. The tax avoidance conspiracy, which was exposed by whistle-blowers, involved company income tax payment avoidance, Pay-As-You-Earn tax avoidance and reduction or elimination of payments of Value Added Tax. Upon investigation tax agents were found to have collected bribes from companies to reduce their tax liabilities. However, protocols now in place do not allow individual agents to reduce taxpayers’ tax liabilities. “Any suggestion by an officer that they can deliver that is a gross misrepresentation of the facts and can only result in further losses to the taxpayer as they will pay the officer and yet still have to contend with the outstanding tax debt at some point,” said Masilela. In fact, the ERA generated a net profit from the scam. “(The companies) have only served to postpone payment while their accounts continued to accumulate significant amounts of interest on the tax debts, which must still be paid,” said Masilela. In an earlier interview with FTW, Masilela ascribed the up-tick in tax revenue collection to a culture of professionalism and honesty he had instilled since taking over the tax authority with a mandate to restore integrity to the tax collection process. “Courtesy is important, and explaining everything to the taxpayer. It helps if they know we are honest. Our tax collections have gone up because we are thorough, not because we have to be aggressive.”