Lucky Montana open to settlement with SARS over his R55m tax debt

Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) executive, Lucky Montana, says he is open to a settlement with the South African Revenue Service (SARS), however, it must be considerably less than the R55 million he is being quoted.

This weekend, SARS took an extraordinary step of publicly disclosing a taxpayer's debt.

This came after Montana accused SARS of fraud.

On Monday, Montana held his own media briefing to respond to the revenue service.

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Between 2009 and 2019, SARS flagged a number of unexplained income into Montana's bank accounts.

This was the time Montana was heading up PRASA.

As of August this year, Montana owes the tax man more than R55 million, which includes the capital amount and accumulated interest on penalties.

Montana said he plans to dispute this debt until the very end. 

"There is always a possibility for a settlement. I think it will be foolish of me to close off on that. I am not fighting the (SARS) commissioner personally or anyone of his team."

SARS said Montana has until Tuesday to address some legal and formal requirements for a compromise on his tax debt.