Sars cautions new businesses

Johannesburg - People wanting to set up their own enterprises should beware of previously registered companies and close corporations that already have VAT numbers, warns the South African Revenue Service (Sars).

Because of the many months of delays experienced at the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) in getting new companies, close corporations, cooperatives and VAT numbers registered at Sars, it is becoming an increasingly attractive option to buy previously registered entities.

Shelf Company Warehouse - which is as far as can be ascertained the largest concern assisting with registrations - charges, according to its website and call centre agents, R6 000 for a new registered company with a VAT number.

On Tuesday an agent in the Pretoria office said that they currently had no stock - they expected new numbers last week. It could take some time as there were 62 people on the waiting list.

According to Sars spokesperson Adrian Lackay, these offerings are "highly suspicious".

Sars calls into question the validity of the VAT numbers being offered to clients. A new company wanting a VAT number needs to go to a Sars branch office and complete a registration form.

Lackay says the information about the enterprise and its directors or proprietors is first verified by Sars and the business premises are in certain instances also visited.

The aim is to complete the registration process within five working days, but various sources have told Sake24 one is lucky to have it finalised within 21 days.

An accountant at a Pretoria firm that does registrations on behalf of clients says that in some instances it takes up to six months to get numbers.

According to Lackay, more than a year ago Sars introduced strict new requirements related to VAT registration because fraudulent VAT claims had been identified as one of the most popular methods of robbing the fiscus.

VAT repayments, which cost billions each month, remain a risk to the fiscus and Sars has a duty to ensure that the correct repayment is made to the right taxpayer, he said.

Because of fraud on the Cipro system, repayments worth R51m from Sars to Sun Microsystems and SBC International Management were, for example, made to duplicate companies last January.

Chris Gouws, a director of Shelf Company Warehouse, told Sake24 that the company actually no longer offered registered VAT numbers and that the information should already have been removed from their website.

- Sake24.com

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