SARS acts against Pauw for revealing tax information

THE South African Revenue Service has followed through on threats to take legal action against the author of The President’s Keepers‚ Jacques Pauw.

Pauw’s bombshell book contained revelations over the tax affairs of President Jacob Zuma‚ including that he was paid a R1-million a month salary for at least four months after he became president in 2009.

The payments‚ according to Pauw‚ were made by long-time Zuma ally‚ Durban businessman Roy Moodley.

SARS‚ in papers filed in the Western Cape High Court on Friday‚ is seeking a declaratory order affirming its position that Pauw contravened confidentiality clauses in the Tax Administration Act by publishing the information and‚ in so doing‚ broke the law.

The application relies on an affidavit by SARS commissioner Tom Moyane.

“The declaratory orders sought are necessary given the importance and magnitude of the contravention‚” Moyane’s affidavit reads.

“Such declaratory orders are imperative to give confidence to the public knowing that taxpayer information would not be willy-nilly disclosed by third parties who have no authority to be in possession of such information and to disclose it without consequence.”

Moyane cites section 67 (3) of the TAA and interprets it as: “What this subsection implies is that if a person receives SARS’ confidential information which has been disclosed to him or her and the information was not disclosed in compliance with the TAA‚ the person to whom the information has been disclosed is prohibited from disclosing it further.”

The papers go on to cite every single contravention of the Act SARS could find in Pauw’s book.

Pauw said yesterday that he was not worried about it, but could not fathom what SARS’ motive was.

He said that, in effect, SARS had confirmed the allegations relating to Zuma’s tax affairs. – TimesLIVE