Ezulwini – Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) has launched the Sondzela Sikhulume Campaign. The campaign was officially launched on Thursday, February 15,2023 at the Eswatini Revenue Service’s offices at Ezulwini. The ERS members were joined by different members of the media as the campaign was officially presented to the nation.
The campaign aims at encouraging both the clients, individuals and businesses to proactively engage with the ERS to explore tailored solutions for managing their tax matters. The transition of the Eswatini Revenue Service from an authority to service in 2022 has seen the service embarking in an awesome journey of table-to-table engagements with clients
The ERS Compliance Triangle shows that the service does everything necessary to make everyone comply. Most taxpayers are honest and want to comply with the greatest ease and lowest cost and the service provides assistance to enhance compliance. A few would on time to time not comply and the service detects and deter non-compliance. Some would make a conscious decision not to comply and the service is obliged to enforce the full extent of the law.
Despite all the corrective measures in place, the Commissioner General at ERS has urged clients to come out to the service and voice out their predicaments. Speaking on the launch of Sondzela Sikhulume campaign, the Commissioner General stated that: “the middleman in tax collection is still a problem since they collect the tax, keep it and as it accumulates, they become afraid of coming through. We have this campaign to help ease the pressure on those owing large sums of tax to have a platform to table their story. We have opened our hands and ears for our clients. We do not want any business to close due to tax” he said
When the CG was asked on the burning issue of selective treatment and lifestyle audit, he came out to clarify that noone is treated specially and everyone pays tax except their Majesties and Special Diplomats. The Commissioner Domestic Tax at ERS, Vusi Ngcamphalala, highlighted that there are 23 active cases of lifestyle audits and about E50 million of taxable money has been discovered among the 23 audited and still counting.
Another rising issue was the issue of Prevention of Organized Crime (POCA), where a member of the floor asked ERS if they were able to tax the illegal transactions like those of illegal drugs. A member of ERS legal team Mr Sukati clearly explained that any transaction is taxable whether legal or illegal. He went on to mention however, that they didn’t have the jurisdiction to question the source of the funds since there were entities designed for that.
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