PRETORIA, Tuesday 11 June 2019 – SARS welcomes the judgement handed down against Mr. Mark Roy Lifman and 35 applicants in the Western Cape High Court today, Tuesday 11 June 2019.

This follows the stay application brought by Lifman to prevent SARS from proceeding with collection action.

In 2015 SARS had initiated collection steps against Lifman. But the unit executing the investigation was disbanded in 2016.

Lifman’s application was based on his allegation that exceptional circumstances existed in that  SARS committed to  conduct an internal review and reconsider the assessments issued. He said this was communicated to Lifman by an Auditor in SARS’ Cape Town office.

SARS can confirm  that the action of the auditor was irregular and the individual has subsequently left the organization. 

The High Court confirmed the following:

• The Tax Administration Act of 2011 makes no provision for the reconsideration of an assessment contended for in the application;
• The applicable mechanism to dispute an assessment issued by SARS is through Dispute Resolution provisions contained in the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011
• That the application appears to be an abuse of the process 

This judgment allows SARS to proceed with collection steps against the Lifman and the applicants.