The Mercury
Flamboyant Durban couple Shauwn and Sbu Mpisane leave the Pinetown Magistrates Court flanked by bodyguards. Photo: Puri Devjee
Durban – Businesswoman and millionaire Shauwn Mpisane, who is on trial for tax fraud in the Durban Regional Court, allegedly manipulated her company’s profit, reducing it by R28 million to pay less tax.
Sars audit specialist Waheeda Osman, who was testifying in the trial on Thursday, said by 2009 Mpisane and her company, Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport, owed the taxman R33m.
Mpisane and her company are charged with 119 counts of fraud involving R4.7m. The charges are that she submitted allegedly fraudulent revised income tax statements for 2008 and fake invoices to Sars and that she put incorrect information on VAT returns.
Mpisane has pleaded not guilty and blames her former bookkeeper Kishal Reddy.
In a separate case, Reddy pleaded guilty to generating the fake invoices but said he did it on Mpisane’s orders. He was fined R30 000 and will be the State’s key witness.
Osman said she did an audit of Zikhulise’s financial statements in 2008 and, due to her audit findings, an additional 100 percent tax was imposed.
Mpisane objected to the finding and said she had an “agreement” with Sars and did not have to pay the extra tax.
Osman said Zikhulise’s financial statement for 2008 had initially reflected a net profit of R74m but later Mpisane and accountant Trevor Dalton submitted a revised statement with a drastic drop in profit.
She said Mpisane accounted for the reduction by stating that amounts for purchases and salaries had not been deducted in the earlier statement.
“It was strange that there was this new profit after the deductions even though Mpisane had not disputed her profit earlier when she made the objection. She only objected that she had to pay the additional tax.”
Osman said she was tasked with verifying the invoices provided by Mpisane. She contacted companies to verify the invoices but some could not provide documents due to “flooding, fire or some other strange circumstances”.
She said one company’s owner told her that the invoices were “forgeries” and had not been generated by him.
She also told the court that, during a meeting in 2009, the Mpisanes told her and other senior Sars officials that they could not pay their debt.
Osman said the Mpisanes even tried to claim VAT back on their luxury vehicles, saying they were used in the construction business.
The Mercury
