SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
PRESS STATEMENT

2 MARCH 2006

FRAUDULENT SCHEME TARGETS BUSINESSES

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) cautions all taxpayers to be on the lookout for a fraudulent scheme aimed at extorting money from businesses in the Johannesburg area.

SARS has received information from businesses that an individual, purporting to be a SARS official visited two business premises in the south of Johannesburg recently.

The suspect demanded payments of R5 000-00 (five thousand rand) and R8 000-00 (eight thousand rand) from two business owners in exchange for a "Compliance Clearance Slip". This fraudulent document was issued for a period of five years. The document contains a fraudulent SARS stamp and was issued by the "Audit Section (0773), Receiver of Revenue".

No such unit exists in SARS.

SARS officials do from time to time engage in site visits and inspections of business premises. However, taxpayers can be assured that the following protocols or guidelines will always be adhered to:

• A SARS official will not visit a business premises alone. If inspections or visits are done, they are undertaken by teams
• Officials will always produce SARS identification and provide businesses with an office telephone number to confirm their identities
• SARS does not issue "Compliance Clearance Slips". An authentic Tax Clearance Certificate is issued ONLY at a SARS Branch, office as the taxpayer's file has to be examined electronically on the SARS system
• A Tax Clearance Certificate is valid for up to one year and is issued based on past behaviour by the taxpayer
• No taxpayer should ever pay over cash to a SARS official other than at a SARS Branch office or into an approved SARS account at a commercial bank
• Every Tax Clearance Certificate that SARS issues has a unique identifier number which enables a taxpayer to question its validity at any SARS Branch office. These certificates are issued FREE to compliant taxpayers.

SARS requests the public to be vigilant and keep SARS informed of such scams through the SARS Fraud and Anti-Corruption hotline: 0800 00 28 70.

END

ISSUED BY THE COMMISSIONER FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
PRETORIA