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Time to pay up

18/08/2013 10:15:00 BY MFANUKHONA NKAMBULE

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MBABANE – The Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) has written letters to pastors informing them to pay personal tax.

Bishop Steven Masilela, President of the Swaziland Conferences of Churches, confirmed receipt of a letter informing him to honour tax obligations. He did not disclose how much the SRA wants from him.

However, the bishop said he had been informed by other pastors that they had also received letters from the SRA. Asked if the amount wanted from him exceeded E10 000, the bishop responded:”It’s above E10 000 which they want from me.”
“I have received the letter from the SRA, which is an estimate of what they believe I earn and they then gave an estimate of what I must pay in tax for the year.”

Bishop Masilela said they do not have qualms with the taxation of pastors because they had an obligation to lead by example in payment of tax. The president said the only complaint they had in the past was necessitated by suggestions that they owed tax for a period spanning seven years.
Judging from the content of the letter, he said, it appeared the revenue authority was serious with its mission to recover its money from the men of the cloth.

“Impela bayayifuna lemali (SRA really wants its money),” said Bishop Masilela.
He said the estimated taxes could mean the pastors should go to the SRA for queries.
“There are pastors whose earnings are not in the taxable bracket and they don’t earn E3 500 per month. The estimates from the SRA must not be made on the basis of what they think some pastors earn in the urban corridor, in particular Manzini and Mbabane. There are pastors in the rural areas who struggle to earn a living,” he said.

Reverend Johannes Mazibuko, senior pastor at Mbabane Alliance Church said he had not received the letter because he had been paying personal tax. He said he realised the need to pay tax when the issue was vibrantly debated two years ago.

Reverend Mazibuko said he was serving in statutory boards that taxed his sitting allowances. On seeing that his sitting allowances were taxed, Reverend Mazibuko said he instructed the Mbabane Alliance Church to ensure his salary was taxed.

“The SRA wants churches to submit financial returns, which we have done as the Mbabane Alliance Church. I assume those who have received letters did not submit the financial returns and the SRA wants them to come forward so that they can work out the issue of tax,” he said.
Reverend Mazibuko said he was aware that some pastors begun some years ago to pay tax.
“There may be a few pastors who pay tax but I only know of a few of them who pay tax,” he said.

‘SRA not taxing God’

MBABANE – The Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) Commissioner-General said his organisation is not targeting pastors but everyone who is obligated in law to pay tax.

Dumsani Masilela said the SRA had undertaken a crucial exercise to ensure pastors, inclusive, were taxed according to the laws of the country. He confirmed writing to pastors and their churches.
Masilela said men of the cloth should not interpret the exercise as one aimed at taxing God. He said some churches performed certain commercial activities on the sidelines which were taxable. A church is a non-profit organisation that the SRA could not tax but other incomes derived from projects, which the church undertook, were taxable, said Masilela.

The commissioner-general said the SRA could not tax tithes but the tithes were open to taxation if they did not benefit the church or not being used for church related functions.
“If tithes are in the hands of a certain officer or parishioner, we can then tax them like any income a person gets,” he said.

It has been easy for the SRA to get hold of the pastors because churches are registered with government.
“If the church holds a fund-raising dinner and starts selling food and other items, it is now in business competing with the outlets that sell similar food. That’s when we have to come in and tax the church,” he said.

Masilela said they were exploring all avenues to get all that is due to the state stressing that the SRA would collect money from all people across the country.