Moneyweb
The South African Revenue Service said it had conducted an urgent review of its registration process following a "suspicious" increase in VAT registrations by vendors.
SARS Commissioner, Edward Kieswetter, said their "analysis suggests that a large number of these registrations are being created with the intent to defraud SARS and, by implication, honest taxpayers."
He said after noticing a significant spike in April, SARS conducted an urgent review of its registration process, saying that a key objective of the administration platform is "ease of registration."
Kieswetter said as a result of their observations SARS will be implementing several measures with immediate effect and are also ready to pursue criminal charges against these perpetrators.
He also noted that in the 2022/2023 financial year, the SA Revenue Service paid out a record R381 billion in refunds, of which R319 billion was for VAT refunds.
