Johannesburg – Businessman Moshe Motshekga has written a letter to SA Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Edward Keiswetter to raise concerns about whether his tax woes are possibly caused by ANC factional battles against his parents, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and ANC MP Dr Mathole Motshekga.
The Gauteng-based construction tycoon showed us the letter when we solicited comments from him about the judgment that SARS obtained against him in June at the Joburg High Court for failing to pay almost R20-million in personal income tax.
The judgment, which Sunday World has seen, says he owes over R14-million.
This rose to about R20-million after it added about R5.3m in penalties and interests.
The judgment was obtained after SARS demanded on March 29 that he make full payment or make arrangements to pay in instalments within 10 business days or risk losing his assets. Motshekga said he penned the letter in September last year after being slapped with exorbitant tax bills, which he contended did not tally with the revenue his businesses had generated.
In the letter, he said he was being unfairly treated by SARS and also asked if he was being persecuted by those possibly waging a political vendetta against his parents.
“I started asking myself questions whether relations to some senior members in government and the governing party could maybe have connections to what I am going through, obviously I couldn’t come up with the ultimate answer,” he said.
Motshekga said his nightmare started in 2014 when SARS approached him to audit his companies. He said afterward that his companies – Kamo Construction, MaupiPlant and Equipment Hire, and his wife’s companies Mudziwa Travel and Ultimate Travel – were slapped with a tax bill totalling over R144-million. Sars spokesperson Anton Fisher said “chapter 6 of the Tax Administration Act does not allow SARS to disclose taxpayer information”.
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