SARS warns against imposters

The South African Revenue Service has cautioned taxpayers, particularly businesses, to be on the lookout for a fraudulent scheme aimed at extorting money in the Johannesburg area. Sars has received information from businesses that an individual, purporting to be a Sars official visited two business premises in the south of Johannesburg recently. The suspect demanded payments of five thousand and eight thousand rands from two business owners in exchange for a so-called Compliance Clearance Slip. The document contains a fraudulent Sars stamp and claims to be issued by the Audit Section of the Receiver of Revenue. Sars spokesperson Adrian Lackay says there is no such unit in Sars