(1)(a)(b) Due to the secrecy provisions contained in Section 69 of the Tax Administration Act No. 28 of 2011, SARS is prohibited from disclosing any taxpayer information (Including whether or not a taxpayer is subject to an audit) to any person other than a SARS official.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) makes no differentiation according to taxpayers’ political affiliation. SARS treats the tax affairs of all members of political parties in exactly the same manner as all other taxpayers in accordance with the compliance model. This model is premised on three components to encourage tax compliance: Education, Service and Enforcement.
(2)(a) The selection of taxpayers for audits is generated through an automated risk Engine and manual profiling which is designed based on principles such as:
(b) Any case triggered by the risk engine and above a stated threshold would be routed for an Audit. This might apply to one taxpayer for multiple years.
(3) (a)(b) SARS audits debit, credit and nil assessments. The risk is obviously higher with credit assessments and thus the percentage of credit assessments audited will be higher. This question must be viewed in light of the R30bn credit revised assessments SARS was able to prevent from flowing last year.
SARS cannot comment on taxpayer perception, however all audit alerts are based on a sound selection process which all taxpayers are subject to.