Megan Langton, tax attorney (left) and Micaela Paschini, team lead of Tax Legal at Tax Consulting. (Graphic by Nicola Mawson, with images sourced from Tax Consulting and LinkedIn)
SHOCKING LEAK: YOUR FAVORITE APPS AND STREAMING SERVICES ARE FUNDING A TAX HEIST WORTH BILLIONS, AND SARS CAN’T STOP IT. Experts reveal a GAPING HOLE in South Africa’s tax net as Big Tech giants and ILLEGAL services like Starlink bleed the fiscus DRY while YOU pay more.
As Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana prepares his budget, a BOMBSHELL report exposes how South Africa is being SYSTEMATICALLY ROBBED. The culprits? Foreign digital empires and rogue services operating with impunity, while a decade-old tax system crumbles.
“VAT is the state’s most dependable tool,” warn tax attorneys, but that tool is now USELESS against the borderless digital economy. Every Netflix subscription, every software license, and every illegal Starlink roaming package purchased from Mozambique represents MILLIONS in LOST revenue. This isn’t just evasion; it’s a structural COLLAPSE.
Despite THREE legislative attempts to claw back taxes from digital services, the government remains BLIND. Companies with NO physical footprint in South Africa are siphoning profits, leaving SARS powerless. The shocking truth? The taxman’s visibility ends at the border, creating a paradise for fiscal avoidance.
The Starlink scandal is the TIP OF THE SPEAR. ICASA admits the service operates ILLEGALLY, yet South Africans access it freely. Where is the VAT on those subscriptions? VANISHED into the digital void. This is not a minor loophole; it is a CANYON draining critical funds from schools, roads, and hospitals.
SARS’s promised “modernisation” is a desperate, years-late scramble that won’t be complete until 2028. By then, the damage will be IRREVERSIBLE. The question is no longer about raising VAT rates, but whether the government has ALREADY LOST CONTROL of the national purse to Silicon Valley and satellite pirates.
Your digital life is financing a shadow economy, and the authorities are decades behind. The entire concept of national sovereignty is being ERASED, one untaxed digital transaction at a time.
Author: Kayitsi.com
