Nkandla: SARS confirms they are investigating Zuma’s R 63 million fringe benefits tax
24 May 2017
The DA welcomes the admission by Advocate Neo Tsholanku of SARS at the SCOPA meeting yesterday that SARS is indeed investigating the liability by President Jacob Zuma to pay tax on the fringe benefits related to his Nkandla private residence.
The DA will now write to SARS Commissioner, Tom Moyane, to ask for a firm commitment to a timeline for the completion of this investigation.
By our calculations, and in terms of the Income Tax Act, President Zuma owes fringe benefit taxes and penalties of R63.9 million on the non-security improvements to Nkandla. This is a massive amount of money that is desperately needed by the fiscus.
Tsholanku, in the SCOPA meeting glibly stated that “our auditors are working as fast as they can” to complete the investigation. However, the reality is that it has been three years since the DA first called on SARS, in March 2014, to assess the extent of the President’s Nkandla fringe benefits.
Tsholanku’s excuse won’t do. SARS cannot think that South Africans must simply accept a massive delay in enforcing Jacob Zuma's tax liability. For three years Zuma has gotten away with evading paying tax on his palace of corruption - but that time is up.
The former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, made it clear that items such as the cattle kraal, the chicken run, the amphitheatre, the visitors’ centre and the infamous “fire pool” built at Nkandla, had nothing to do with security considerations for the President, but only served to benefit his personal property.
It is complete nonsense for SARS to cry “complex processes” and “our auditors are working as fast as they can” after being aware of the non-security upgrades for a full three years since the matter was exposed by the DA.
While SARS is obliged by law to ensure that all taxpayers pay their taxes, President Zuma is also obliged to declare all income and benefits that have accrued to him. It seems clear that Zuma did not voluntarily declare to SARS the Nkandla fringe benefits - and if this is the case at the end of the investigation, Zuma must also be criminally prosecuted.
The DA will continue to ensure that the President is held to account for this gross misuse of public funds.
Issued by Alf Lees, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Finance, 24 May 2017
