Thursday, June 14, 2018

Corruption Gutted South Africa’s Tax Agency

Washington Post: “Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and son-in-law, brought in at least $82 million in outside income while serving as senior White House advisers during 2017, according to new financial disclosure forms released Monday.


South Africa’s version of the Internal Revenue Service is perhaps an unlikely setting for a national saga involving spies, spurned lovers, secret brothels, double agents and one of the biggest journalistic scandals of the post-apartheid era. 

But the story shows how an increasingly corrupt A.N.C. has undermined its own successes by betraying the very people who brought it to power.
And the drama is far from over. In today’s South Africa — dangling precariously between dueling factions inside the A.N.C. — the nation’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is struggling to assert his authority and fulfill his pledge to root out corruption. He now stands knee-deep in a very messy fight to wrest the tax agency from the legacy of his predecessor, Mr. Zuma, and win back the confidence of an angry nation.
With corruption and political warfare gutting the agency, more and more South Africans have simply stopped paying their taxes, a dangerous turn in a nation where tens of millions depend on government services that are already enfeebled by graft and misrule. In the eyes of many experts, the government’s — and the country’s — ability to right itself is at stake.
Corruption Gutted South Africa’s Tax Agency. Now the Nation Is Paying the Price. The New York Times
Cites TJN chief executive Alex Cobham

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TAX INSPECTOR-GENERAL RENEWS CALL FOR NEW 2ND COMR TO DEAL WITH APPEALS
The Inspector-General of Taxation, Ali Noroozi, has again called for the creation of a separate appeals area in the ATO to be headed by a new Second Commissioner. Mr Noroozi made his comments when appearing before a Senate Estimates hearing. Mr Noroozi said, "it is inevitable that a separate appeals area, if it doesn't happen in the next year or so, it is inevitable that it will be required in the future".
According to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Noroozi said that, following the recent Fairfax / ABC Four Corners program (see 2018 WTB 15 [404]-[405]), complaints to his office had increased significantly. He said some 522 complaints had been received by his office since the Four Corners program.

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