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Sars had hundreds of new collectors on its payroll and the latest technology at its fingertips, which meant it was becoming increasingly difficult to evade tax, KPMG said in a statement on Monday.
"[N]ow is a particularly bad time to try your luck, " said Yasmeen Suliman, associate director of tax.
However, that was just what increasing numbers of business owners and individuals seemed to be doing as the effects of the global economic downturn continued to hit South Africans in the pocket.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan disclosed that Sars had collected R598.5bn in the 2009/10 fiscal year - or R26.8bn less than it had the previous year.
"Even more serious for Sars was that this amount was R60.8bn less than it had initially planned to collect."
Suliman said Sars, anticipating just such a drop-off, had started last August to beef up its collection capability. It had spent "millions" merging its separate systems to make it easier to call up all the relevant information on a taxpayer. It could now use a taxpayers' ID numbers to see what taxes they were registered for.
Sars could ascertain the number of properties and cars a taxpayer owned, memberships and directorships in close corporations, companies held and any trusts linked to them.
"This makes the profiling of delinquent taxpayers much easier."
New laws had been introduced to strengthen Sars' hand in enforcing compliance. These included monthly penalties for taxpayers with many returns outstanding, and new rules for the remission of interest when VAT was paid late, which meant it was much harder to convince Sars to waive the interest levied.
Sars was identifying and prosecuting delinquent taxpayers more aggressively, and was focusing more on high net worth individuals.
"They can often be identified through the media if they have a high public profile, through assets like expensive properties or cars, or through being reported by a suspicious colleague or family member," Suliman said.- Sapa
