Masitara tussle with taxman in court

OLIVER MODISE
Staff Writer | Friday February 22, 2008 00:00

In his current application, Masitara is fighting tooth and nail to have a writ of execution in tax arrears of up to P800,000 to be stayed until March 28 because he still needs certain answers from BURS.  

In the present application which comes before Justice Ian Kirby at the High Court today.  Masitara wants the court to identify and state the qualifications of the people who did the audit that puts his tax arrears at such a staggering amount.

Masitara's lawyers last week pulled a last minute legal stunt by demanding inspection of an audit conducted on Masitara and Masitara Investments.

Masitara's Lawyer, Doreen Khama, has asked the court to suspend action on the judgement requiring her client to comply with the commissioner general's finding that he owes the government tax.

Masitara alleges that officials failed to read and understand the financial returns correctly.

'The vehement personal attack on me as contained in the respondent's responses and particularly in its answering affidavit in the respondent's interlocutory application indeed does, to my mind, create the impression that the tax office has an attitude towards me,' contends Masitara.

'In light of their alleged professionalism, the selectivity of information was clearly calculated and designed to mislead this honourable court,' argues Masitara.

Khama submits that her client is concerned about the manner in which the audit was handled.

'It is submitted that it is highly improper, irregular and arbitrary for the audit to have been made on the basis of 'cherry-picking' items from financial statements, ignoring their disclosed sources and failing to read a set of financial statements fairly,' she argues.

BURS want Masitara to pay now and try challenging the taxman in court later. 'The allegation made by the respondent that the applicant has been tardy, or delayed the matter is, with respect, without any foundation and it is an unfair and unreasonable attack on the applicant in the conduct of these proceedings,' states the affidavit from Khama.

She argues that BURS failed to adhere to the times set out to amplify its answering affidavit within the set date adding that to date no reason has been given on the delayed progress of the case.

He further states that certain documents were not available to him adding that BURS managed to obtain full documents from the banks and has not suffered any prejudice.

Masitara says that BURS's claims were flawed because of a miscalculation resulting from incompetent professionals. He points out that the auditors ignored a lot of documentation.

'All the applicant is concerned with is that there be a proper computation of tax due and payable by the applicant,' says Khama.

In determining the case, Khama states that the court was left with the work of reviewing Masitara investment's income and allowances for three motor vehicles. 

Masitara's lawyer has demanded that the offices of its attorneys, Sadique Kebonang should be availed for inspection so that they can fish out all the records relating to the audit on Masitara.

His lawyer contends that after perusing through the records of audit from BURS, it was observed that the proceedings did not have supporting documentation.

Masitara's lawyers have indicated that the audit makes reference to a Mercedes Benz motor vehicle without providing any documentation.

The reason why all the declared income was not deposited is because relatively minor amounts of income received were utilised for Masitara's micro-lending operations. The commissioner claims that Masitara Investments owes government P625,111.23 in assessed tax. An amount of P264, 576.08 is included as a penalty at an interest rate of 1.5 percent per month.

This raises Masitara's tax debt to P889, 687.31.BURS chief, Modise, has also instructed former high court judge, Moatlhodi Marumo to come to his side when the case is argued today at the Lobatse High Court.