Sars slams Judge Davis

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) yesterday accused Judge Dennis Davis of “unashamedly misleading” the public by claiming that the revenue service was at a risk of imploding.

This comes after Davis, chairperson of the Davis tax committee, addressed a conference on tax evasion and illicit financial flows.

The conference was organised by the Alternative Information Development Centre in Cape Town last weekend.

“Sars has noted with grave disbelief the unprovoked and unwarranted attacks on Sars by Judge Dennis Davis,” Sars said in a statement yesterday.

“In his address, Judge Davis unashamedly misled the South African public and purported to undermine public confidence into Sars in a desperate endeavour to pursue a patently false narrative.”

Davis was quoted as saying that Sars had no capability of actually dealing with multinational corporation and capital that sought to evade tax, and that the drop in income tax collections was the most obvious red flag.

“The biggest challenge facing South Africa today is an erosion of the integrity of Sars,” Davis was quoted as saying.

The revenue service said it had been, and was currently, continuing to capacitate its transfer pricing unit and had an agreement with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, such as United Kingdom, for the training, capacity building and skill transfer to employees within this transfer pricing unit.

“The judge ought to know that the challenges pertaining to transfer pricing affects all tax authorities across the globe and, in particular, the bigger African continent.

“Sars therefore denies that it has no capability to deal with noncompliance by multinational companies.

“It is disappointing that Judge Davis has publicly misled the South African public, notwithstanding his first-hand knowledge.”

Sars said that the relationship between it and Davis had “intolerably and irretrievably broken down”.

“Sars intends to engage the minister of finance urgently with a view that Judge Davis should recuse himself from the specialist tax committee, or that his membership to the committee be terminated,” it said.

Sars said in its statement that it was in the process of seeking a legal opinion. – ANA

It is disappointing that Judge Davis has publicly misled the South African public ... South African Revenue Service