Cape Town businessman fails to stop Sars from seizing his assets to settle R354m tax debt

A Cape Town businessman has failed in his bid to stop the SA Revenue Service (Sars) from seizing his assets to settle a tax debt amounting to R354m.

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) last week ruled that Mark Roy Lifman had no reasonable prospect of success in his attempt to stop Sars from seizing his assets in settlement of the tax debt.

According to Sars, in June 2019 Western Cape High Court judge Elizabeth Baartman also dismissed Lifman’s application for an order to halt the revenue service’s execution orders to seize his assets and auction them off to recover the tax debt.

“She found that his objections to the assessments raised by Sars had been filed 'belatedly and opportunistically'. Mr Lifman then turned to the SCA.”

According to Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter, “this latest protracted legal battle is further evidence that Sars is working hard to regain the capacity it lost over the past few years in dealing with taxpayers who are avoiding their tax obligations through an abuse of the legal system”.

Kieswetter appealed to tax payers and traders to pay their taxes.

“It is through such voluntary compliance and the associated revenue that Sars collects that our country will be able to provide basic services to the poorest of the poor, whether in the form of social grants, basic education, housing, medical care and other public goods.

“However, I want to warn those who seek to remain non-compliant through whatever means, that Sars will not rest until we recover what is due to the fiscus,” Kieswetter said.

He said there was a worrying trend developing among employers who deduct tax from their employees through Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) but then fail to pay over the money to Sars.

“This development of PAYE non-compliance is a cause for concern and Sars is determined to take every action to stamp it out. The same applies to all other forms of non-compliance from other taxpayers and traders, whether they are in public institutions, private companies or individuals,” Kieswetter said.