WHILE cryptocurrency adoption in South Africa has grown significantly in recent years, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) is seemingly beginning to play hardball when it comes to outstanding tax liability.
In early June, SARS reportedly reached out to independent South African crypto platforms to provide information on its client base, said Thomas Lobban, legal manager for cross-border taxation at Tax Consulting SA.
This came on the back of statements made by the SARS commissioner, Edward Kieswetter, that non-compliance in this regard would not be tolerated.
“There seems to be a good reason for this approach. Individual South African taxpayers have largely been overburdened from a tax perspective, and this, among other issues such as pervasive corruption in government, have resulted in a sharp reduction in the willingness of South Africans to comply with their tax obligations,” said Lobban.
“Combined with the erroneous belief that crypto-asset transactions cannot be traced
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