THE ACCREDITATION concept is modelled on an initiative developed in Australia as well as existing concepts in Canada, Sweden and the US. Trusted clients, who declare to SARS that they are legitimate traders and have processes in place to provide evidence of their high level of compliance with customs laws, policies and procedures are recognised by customs as “trusted clients”. The benefits for the clients are: l Simplified procedures such as electronic clearances leading to a paperless environment; l Consulting with you to consistently improve the processes within customs; l Less human intervention in customs transactions. Accreditation enables SARS to: l Stamp out misconduct and fraudulent activities; l Obtain and maintain a high level of compliance; l Promote legitimate trade facilitation; l Focus their resources on non-accredited clients. Accreditation is open to importers, exporters, clearing agents, removers of goods in bond or a licensee of a customs and excise warehouse. Clearly the benefits are enormous, and the onus lies on the applicant to furnish accurate information. For this reason a large number of the industry has applied for, and been granted accreditation, but Customs has yet to conduct audits to verify any statements in the applications. While its resources are limited and a wide-ranging audit is unlikely in the immediate future, the risks of gaining accreditation without adequate compliance are not to be taken lightly, as Deloitte & Touche manager: Indirect Tax Jed Michaletos explained to FTW. “Once an application for accreditation has been submitted, in terms of Section 64E SARS may conduct an inspection to verify the declaration made in your application. “Even if you are successful in your application without SARS doing an inspection it must be remembered that SARS can do its inspection at any stage to verify your declarations and there are penalties which could be levied if the information on an application for accreditation is incorrect. “In addition any errors of non-compliance discovered by SARS during their inspection could result in penalties and/or forfeiture and the loss of your accredited status.” “It is therefore recommended to get a level of assurance as to your level of compliance prior to applying to SARS for accreditation.”
