Is this a scam or not?

[marco]

I have to pay Exit Tax for 2015 to SARS due to emigration. To make this as short as possible I will summarize.

I could not do so via efiling from Portugal as my page stated that 2014 tax was not yet concluded as it required human intervention. This stayed the same for 3 years.

Got an accountant from a company that deals with emigration tax with POA to sort it out. Quote was R10k.

She cleared the 2014 tax that was not concluded the same day!!! Nothing owing and nothing due.

I made all the calculations and she just had to enter the Base Cost and Deemed Sale price in efiling. A few website maneuvers and 2 entries at a cost of 10 grand. How good is that? Plus she sent me the SARS bill for R58K.

Then HER bill arrives. R14k and her private account number. No invoice or VAT amount.

I contact the company to find out about the dodgy payment.

Three months pass and I hear nix. Not paid her and she is not complaining. Something stinks.

Gets worse. During this, a Johan from SARS contacts me saying he has been appointed to oversee my tax. Agree to a payment of R10K pm. First payment done via FNB. Johan sent details to FNB an me.

His emails disappear from my computer and I have no contact for him.

Next payment due cannot contact Johan for a reference number.

Go to efiling and it shows "Nothing outstanding" and "no payments due". WTF? Is it my Google Chrome or me being stupid? I have Adobe and Acrobat stuff installed as per SARS instructions. Will I see more in Firefox or some other browser or have I been scammed?

 

[dunkyd]

Scammed.

 

[supersunbird]

Scammed is my diagnoses too.

 

[AirWolf]

Did you pay by selecting SARS from the public recipient list and then tax type in FNB online banking, or were you given an account number and branch code?

First - legit;
Second - most likely scam.

 

[Arthur]

Sounds like it. Could be a criminal syndicate working inside SARS.

 

[Pitbull]

Nea I think you need 100% certainty that is has indeed been cleared.

I can check it for you, can I send my FNB account number?




You probably got scammed. Why give a fark anyway, you in Portugal. If one day you return and there are funds due SARS will let you know pretty quickly, claim stupidity and pay it interest free.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Gets worse. During this, a Johan from SARS contacts me saying he has been appointed to oversee my tax. Agree to a payment of R10K pm. First payment done via FNB. Johan sent details to FNB an me.

His emails disappear from my computer and I have no contact for him.

How?

 

[marco]

How?

Self destruct emails on gmail.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Self destruct emails on gmail.

Seriously.... that sucks. Just read about it now. I missed that 'feature'
Any way to reject email that has self destruct enabled?

 

[marco]

I instructed FNB to make the payment as I cannot do so directly to SARS from Portugal. FNB controls my banking as I am non resident. My money is all in the JSE so must be in blocked accounts for SARB surveillance.
FNB asked me for a reference number to make the payment and the "Johan" from SARS gave it to them.

Surely FNB will know the SARS payment details and pay it using the reference number.

Perhaps not a scam and my SARS pages do not show properly in Chrome. It shows nothing owing but I know there is. Perhaps MS Edge will show my page differently?

 

[AirWolf]

I instructed FNB to make the payment as I cannot do so directly to SARS from Portugal. FNB controls my banking as I am non resident. My money is all in the JSE so must be in blocked accounts for SARB surveillance.
FNB asked me for a reference number to make the payment and the "Johan" from SARS gave it to them.

Surely FNB will know the SARS payment details and pay it using the reference number.

Perhaps not a scam and my SARS pages do not show properly in Chrome. It shows nothing owing but I know there is. Perhaps MS Edge will show my page differently?

Try Firefox or Internet Explorer for best results with SARS site.

 

[AirWolf]

How?

Self destruct emails on gmail.

Seriously.... that sucks. Just read about it now. I missed that 'feature'
Any way to reject email that has self destruct enabled?

So what happens if you downloaded into Outlook (or other email client)?

 

[backstreetboy]

So what happens if you downloaded into Outlook (or other email client)?

You just get a link not the contents of the email. So doesn't matter where you open it...

 

[SauRoNZA]

I instructed FNB to make the payment as I cannot do so directly to SARS from Portugal. FNB controls my banking as I am non resident. My money is all in the JSE so must be in blocked accounts for SARB surveillance.
FNB asked me for a reference number to make the payment and the "Johan" from SARS gave it to them.

Surely FNB will know the SARS payment details and pay it using the reference number.

Perhaps not a scam and my SARS pages do not show properly in Chrome. It shows nothing owing but I know there is. Perhaps MS Edge will show my page differently?

How does it state this nothing owing? Do you see an actual balance and a 0?

Because if you see a balance with a zero I don't think you have a browser problem as that isn't going to change from one browser to another.

If you are just seeing blanks or no details at all that's a different story.

 

[Venomous]

I would not trust this whole thing...

And your reference should be your tax number and if you had a business then the vat/paye/uif etc ref numbers as issued by SARS. SARS would not transact in gmail. They would have government issued email addresses.

 

[tRoN]

I instructed FNB to make the payment as I cannot do so directly to SARS from Portugal. FNB controls my banking as I am non resident. My money is all in the JSE so must be in blocked accounts for SARB surveillance.
FNB asked me for a reference number to make the payment and the "Johan" from SARS gave it to them.

Surely FNB will know the SARS payment details and pay it using the reference number.

Perhaps not a scam and my SARS pages do not show properly in Chrome. It shows nothing owing but I know there is. Perhaps MS Edge will show my page differently?

Did you not do the payment via FNB online banking using the “public recipient” option?

What do you mean by “FNB asked me for a reference number”?

 

[marco]

How does it state this nothing owing? Do you see an actual balance and a 0?

Because if you see a balance with a zero I don't think you have a browser problem as that isn't going to change from one browser to another.

If you are just seeing blanks or no details at all that's a different story.

It just shows "No outstanding tax". I know that I still owe over R40k according to the accountant and the "Johan" from SARS. They sent me a ITA and a ITR with the amounts and it looks genuine like SARS stuff.

 

[marco]

Did you not do the payment via FNB online banking using the “public recipient” option?

What do you mean by “FNB asked me for a reference number”?

As a non resident I cannot do so. I have to request FNB non res center to do all my banking. FNB could not deposit the money to SARS as they had no reference number. I only gave them my SARS acc. number. Johan from SARS gave them the ref, no.

 

[Dave]

You just get a link not the contents of the email. So doesn't matter where you open it...

Screenshot would be your friend in that case .

 

[airborne]

Phone Sars with Voip or Skype out, easy enough then to check for sure what the situation is.

Sars related fraud is rampant, people get convinced to make Sars payments to parties other than Sars and then disappear.