PRETORIA. As tax filing season begins in earnest in South Africa, the SA Revenue Service has announced a groundbreaking initiative which will see it channeling funds directly from taxpayers to corrupt government officials and organized crime bosses. SARS said it would save billion of rands that would otherwise have to be spent on "completely futile" law-enforcement.
SARS spokesman Lucretia Fisk said that it was time to cut out the middleman.
"It's very expensive being passive in the fight against crime," she said.
"South African taxpayers fork out enormous amounts of money every year to pay thousands of police, doctors, judges and coroners, and they're getting a pretty crap return on that investment.
"Nobody is naïve enough to believe that crime levels are anywhere close to dropping in the medium term, so it's time to be pragmatic and see what financial disciplines we can apply to a country with no functioning law-enforcement."
She said the change in policy would be reflected on this year's SARS forms, which would allow taxpayers to choose which criminal element they would like their tax paid to.
She added that SARS offices were happy to deal with any queries.
"It can get quite complicated. Blue-collar versus white-collar crime, violent versus non-violent, work-related versus random hit-and-run, and so on. For example, a lot of people want to know if abductions count as deductions."
However not all allocations will be voluntary, and Fisk says that a compulsory Corruption Deduction will be included in next year's tax intake.
"South Africa loses around R50 billion a year to corrupt public officials.
"About 8 million people pay income tax, so we're looking at a deduction of R6,250 per taxpayer."
She explained that this amount would be automatically deducted from taxpayers and deposited directly into the personal savings accounts of senior municipal and local government officials.
However, she added, taxpayers already stretched beyond their limits could either apply for an amnesty, or could consider becoming criminals themselves to benefit from the new cash infusion.
"Tax evasion is a well-established crime with a long and fairly proud tradition," said Fisk.
"If you choose not to pay the Corruption Deduction, or indeed any tax at all, we can register you as an Alternative Economic Resource Dependant, and whether you were Previously Disadvantaged or not we will assign you with official Currently Advantaged status, and you should get your first cheque about two months after filing."
Source: www.hayibo.com
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