It remains clear that SARS will continue to investigate the wealth of affluent taxpayers, through various avenues. Going forward, qualifying taxpayers should handle all disclosures with care, and where historically non-compliant, should latch their bolts now, before the storm arrives.
The benefit of a tax attorney is that you can discuss your tax affairs with legal privilege. This safety is not afforded by other tax professionals. The 2022/23 SARS disclosure is an important filing in that a very detailed disclosure goes on a permanent record, which means you must be able to defend your filing many years from now.
On new and even existing clients, our tax practice has implemented a HWI Precursory Due Diligence Protocol (“PDDP”), which effectively mirrors a SARS Analysis and initial steps of a SARS forensic audit – you don’t need to belong to the HWI club to gain access with us!
The PDDP is performed by a small, dedicated team including a tax attorney, Professional Tax Specialist (SA), CA (SA) and high-wealth tax planning expert, to ensure that the 2022/23 return can be submitted with confidence.
Where the numbers do not add up, the SARS VDP route remains the most viable route to self-correct and with no criminal prosecution and administrative penalties. The VDP is not available where a SARS investigation has commenced, so taxpayers holding an asset value of R50 million or more, have a limited window to get an extra check done on their taxes before the 2022/23 tax filing. Simply having your advisor’s assurance that all stack up, is no longer sufficient and the “trust but verify” approach should ideally be followed.
