Actress beats taxman

Pretoria - The production house owned by Saira Essa, actress, television presenter and programme producer, has won its case against the South African Revenue Service (Sars).

It appears that Sars wanted to register an appeal, but was caught napping and now needs the court's approval to proceed. The case in fact dealt with the scope of the granting of a tax amnesty for small businesses.

The production house approached the High Court in Pretoria to get a declaratory order regarding further criminal prosecution by Sars after it had been granted amnesty.

In 2003 Sars had audited the close corporation's financial affairs and highlighted a VAT underpayment.

The company paid the outstanding VAT, interest on it and a fine. The production house subsequently applied for amnesty when smaller businesses were given an opportunity to get their tax affairs in order.

By this time the company had already appeared in court seven times because of the alleged text transgressions in the criminal case. In her judgment Judge Sulette Potterill declared that in terms of the Tax Amnesty Act the production house should not have received amnesty.

Sars' inability to explain to the court which periods had not come into consideration for the amnesty meant that the VAT included in the charge sheet in the criminal matter was covered by the amnesty.

- Sake24.com

For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.