Pretoria, Thursday 24 November 2016 – A business man and his accountant were arrested for claiming R110-million VAT refunds for a non-existent business in Cape Town this morning (24 November).
The business man, his accountant and five connected closed corporations received a total of R110 385 975 in VAT refunds over a period of time. They claimed the VAT refunds by submitting fraudulent invoices to SARS on a monthly basis.
Following an audit, SARS’s investigations confirmed that the invoices were not only false but that all the invoices, on which input VAT were claimed were shared between three vendors.
SARS was able to confirm that the suspects did not run a business or purchase goods from suppliers, yet the refunds they had claimed were tantamount to purchases to the value of R823 million.
The money was used to pay bonds on the huge property portfolio held amongst them, luxury vehicles, overseas trips and private expenses. The accused face charges of contraventions of Tax and Customs Acts, as well as charges of theft, fraud, money laundering, forgery and uttering. They are expected to appear in court for a bail hearing within the next few days.
