Freight forwarders have
been advised that they
have the right to demand
reasons for tariffs levied
for the release of goods
stopped by SA Revenue
Service (Sars) customs
officials and for any adverse
tax decision made against
them, CEO of the office of
the tax ombudsman, Eric
Mkhawane, told industry
stakeholders at a meeting in
Durban last week.
Mkhawane, who was
addressing members of the
SA Association of Freight
Forwarders (Saaff), said in
cases where a customs official
had stopped goods and was
delaying the release of cargo,
or where Sars was delaying
payment of refunds, business
owners could complain to
Sars and approach his office
to intervene.
Mkhawane said under
normal circumstances
taxpayers should first
exhaust Sars’ internal
complaints procedures,
which meant giving the
taxman 21 days to respond
to a formal complaint,
before approaching the
ombudsman. But there were
exceptions that allowed
taxpayers to directly
approach his office without
complaining internally.
“If a customs official
has stopped your goods
and they are delaying and
you needed the goods by
a certain time, failing
which you would lose out,
or on the tax side you
have a refund due and you
may face closure of your
business because you can’t
pay your suppliers, in those
circumstances you can
approach our offices and
you don’t have to exhaust
the internal Sars process,”
he said.
“We have the latitude to
decide whether you have
compelling circumstances
and if there is justification
we take the matter and deal
with the issue,” he said.
Mkhawane added that
his office had received 2133
complaints in 2015/16 and
ruled in favour of taxpayers
87% of the time, compared
to 2014/15 when he
received 1277 complaints
and ruled in favour of
taxpayers 84% of the time.
He said the ombudsman’s
recommendations were not
legally binding but Sars did
not ignore them and legal
recourse remained open to
taxpayers.
Mkhawane said the
most common complaints
received were delays in the
payment of refunds and
tax clearance certificates;
incorrect allocation of
payments; non adherence
to dispute resolution
regulations such as
incorrectly invalidating
objections; not responding
to taxpayer requests for
reasons and for a waiver of
penalties and interest and
IRP5 errors.
Mkhawane said
taxpayers were entitled to
reasons for any adverse
decision taken against them
but he said some taxpayers
were afraid to complain
for fear of victimisation,
such as the threat of being
audited, which was why the
ombudsman had embarked
on meetings with the
public.
“Whether the perception
is real or not we bring
it to the commissioner’s
attention and say this is our
concern and officials need
to be informed to desist
from this kind of conduct,”
he said.
His office had
identified potentially
systemic problems within
Sars, including issues
with condonation and
invalidation letters; delays
in issuing refunds; deemed
delivery of documents
and non-compliance
with procedures in
section 179 (5) of the Tax
Administration Act for the
issuing of final demand
letters, he added. His
office recently launched
an investigation into the
problem of delays in issuing
refunds and a report is
expected within the next
five weeks.
