• What is considered a suspicious activity?
• What should you do if you know of a suspicious activity?

What is considered a suspicious activity?

A suspicious activity refers to any conducted or attempted activity or pattern or display of transactions that you know, suspect or have reason to suspect that typically meets any of the following conditions:

1. A person or business is eligible for any type of tax but not paying any form of tax;
2. A person or business employs people and deducts PAYE from the employees but not issuing IRP5 certificates to the employees;
3. Imported goods being sold on the open market at a price lower than “landed cost” i.e. less than what it would cost to purchase the goods, transport them and pay VAT and duty on importation
4. A person or business is eligible for any type of tax, registered for the tax, but not submitting the required returns to SARS;
5. A person is living beyond his obvious financial means – displaying unusually high life-style patterns for a person with similar forms of income;
6. An importer (including the clearing agent) that is found to have not declared, mis-declared or under-declared goods upon importation on more than one occasion;
7. An importer or exporter (including the clearing agent) that enters a Voucher of Correction on more than one occasion;
8. An importer or exporter (including the clearing agent) found to have imported or exported illicit goods (drugs, fire-arms, explosives, CITE described items, counterfeit goods.);
9. A person or business suspected of having mixed fuel of any kind;
10. A person found to carry an unusual large amount of currency in any form whilst travelling into or out of South Africa;
11. A person or business is trading in goods that are suspected of being counterfeit of original brands;
12. A person or business found to have imported or exported frequently using the common 7070-customs code on Bills of Entry;
13. Derives income from criminal activity;
14. A person or business is submitting VAT refund-claims that are fraudulent and do not reflect the truth;
    A person or business is liable to be registered for VAT but is not;
15. Customs warehouse irregularities;
16. Businesses or persons involved in different forms of structure financing;
17. A person or business owes SARS money as a result of an assessment or schedule but not paying SARS;
18. A person is not submitting the truth in a return or submission to SARS;
      

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What should you do if you know of a suspicious activity?

SARS needs your help to ensure a tax-compliant South Africa. If you know of a taxpayer or customs client who is not complying with tax laws, please notify SARS as soon as possible by:

• filling in the suspicious-activity report form; or
• phoning the fraud and corruption hotline on 0800 00 28 70.

Because such reports have the potential to be misused, SARS will always verify the contents before taking any action. Remember that you are not being asked to accuse taxpayers of criminal activity – you are only being asked to file a report if you believe the activity is suspicious and requires SARS to verify tax and customs compliance.

The suspicious-activity report form records the minimum information SARS needs for it to respond to suggestions of non-compliance. The completion of this form may require a few minutes of your time, and contains specific areas of required information to ease this task. Please use the "drop-down" lists to select from the various options in each field.

SARS appreciates the time and effort taken to complete this report form. You have the option to remain anonymous but are, however, urged to supply your personal details, as this may enable investigators to acquire additional information later. Please rest assured that your identity will be kept secret. Legislation ensures the strict confidentiality of information given to SARS.