Question NW2795 to the Minister of Finance
28 August 2015 - NW2795
Alberts, Mr ADW to ask the Minister of Finance
(1)Whether any unit connected with the SA Revenue Service (SARS) has conducted an investigation into the amounts received by (a) a certain person (name furnished) and (b) two officials of the Local Organising Committee for Fifa’s 2010 Soccer World Cup Tournament from (i) Fifa, (ii) the Government and/or (iii) any other person or persons connected to Fifa, which allegedly were not declared by the specified persons and on which no tax was paid; if so, as regards this investigation, (aa) when was it conducted, (bb) by whom was it led, (cc) when was it finalised and (dd) whether any recommendation was made to prosecute a person or persons in this regard; (2) whether, arising from the specified investigation, SARS decided to prosecute a person or persons; if not, who took the decision to institute actions; (3) whether (a) any steps were taken to prosecute a person or persons and (b) this action was followed through; if not, why not; if so, what was the end result of the case; (4) whether he will investigate such allegations?
Reply:
(1)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(aa)(bb)(cc)(dd)(2)(3)(a)(b)(4)
Due to the secrecy provisions contained in Section 69 of the Tax Administration Act No. 28 of 2011, SARS is prohibited from disclosing any taxpayer information (Including whether or not a taxpayer is subject to an audit/ investigation) to any person other than a SARS official. SARS is, therefore, unfortunately not in a position to respond to the above request.