The taxman has backed off in his quest to seize assets held in an "Mpisane trust", withdrawing the court application.
|||Durban - The taxman has backed off in his quest to seize assets held in an “Mpisane trust”, withdrawing the application in the Durban High Court and agreeing to pay the legal costs incurred by Shauwn and Sbu Mpisane in opposing the court action, which they labelled illegal and “bullying”.
The South African Revenue Service secured an interim order two weeks ago “preserving” the properties in the Mkhimpi Family Trust for 90 days, pending the finalisation of audits into the “Mpisane group of taxpayers”, which, it was alleged, had a history of “non-compliance and lack of co-operation”.
Shauwn and Sbu Mpisane are two of the trustees of the trust, which holds properties worth about R13.9 million. Their son is the beneficiary.
On Friday, when the case was called before Judge Fikile Mokgohloa, an order was handed into court discharging the interim rule, which freed up the properties in the trust again.
Sars had claimed that it was conducting audits into the wealthy couple and their three close corporations, construction company Zikhulise Cleaning Maintenance and Transport, Ukhozi Civil Cleaning and Construction (in provisional liquidation) and Zikhulise Auto Restorers.
Sars high court litigation unit specialist Helen Templeton said in her affidavit that they all had outstanding tax issues and the trust had never submitted any tax returns.
But in her answering affidavit, Shauwn Mpisane said the entire application was illegal because tax laws did not permit the assets of one taxpayer (the trust) to be seized to satisfy the tax debts of another.
She said Templeton had conceded that the trust did not owe any money.
“There is speculation that the trust assets are personal assets of the trustees. This is denied,” she said.
Mpisane said Templeton had not fully disclosed all the facts to the court, including the fact that the properties were to be restrained in terms of an agreement between the trustees and Trevor White, the curator in asset forfeiture proceedings, in which most of their assets had already been restrained.
She said Templeton had been party to these discussions, and that the application by Sars “conjures up the spectacle of two branches of the state appearing to compete against one another to obtain control of the same properties”. Sars was being an intemperate bully.
“I say this in the light of ongoing negotiations which are taking place between my legal representatives and Sars in respect of tax matters and the enormous amounts of tax that have been paid by me, my husband and Zikhulise.
“She (Templeton) has attempted to smear me and the entities I represent as being unco-operative. This is untruthful.”
She admitted that audits were ongoing, but said Sars had been in possession of all necessary documentation since February this year.
She said that, since 2008, Zikhulise had paid more than R32m in income tax and R52m in VAT, “making suggestions that it is non-compliant unlikely”.
“We have no doubt Sars is targeting us. The motives for this are, to me, a mystery, having regard to the large amounts of tax which we have already paid,” she said.
The Mercury