Former Orlando Pirates striker Ndumiso Ignacious Mabena is on the radar of the taxman over his unpaid half a million-tax bill. ZiMoja can reveal today that the soccer player who now play his trade at Polokwane city following his exit from the Buccaneers this year, has been hauled before the South Gauteng High Court by the South African Revenue Service. 

SARS GOES TO COURT 

The taxman filed its court papers last week Thursday demanding that the footballer must foot his tax bill amounting to R575 247.15 for his unpaid income tax. In its court papers seen by ZiMoja, the taxman as SARS is affectionately known to most South Africans, indicates that the soccer player has not filed and or paid his income tax for three years. But Mabena said that he fears that the tax collector would raid his account and garnishee his salary from his new employers, the Limpopo based Premier Soccer League club, Polokwane City due to the tax bill. This he said, was because he was not made aware or informed about the tax bill by the tax collector.

POSSIBLE THAT THE BILL IS LEGIT 

Mabena, when contacted about the court action and the bill, said it was possible that he could be owing such a huge some in taxes, but he said this could have emanated from their exit from the former PSL club, Bloemfontein Celtic, which was financially struggling, stating that the owner of the club was known to have had finance and tax issues at the time of the exit. " I think I know where this could be coming from. Remember when we left Bloemfontein Celtic, the owner had issues of finances and we later learnt about his tax issues as well. So, I suspect that even though he gave us IRP5s, there's a chance that he was not paying the money to SARS during our time there, " said Mabena. The soccer player said he had received his IRP5 in almost all the teams he played for, except Royal AM, which he said he exited under a serious drama. "That's the only club I played for where I never received any IRP5 to show that taxes were paid on my behalf. I'm not saying that they didn't pay, but I don't have anything to confirm that they did because of the way I left there," he said. 

PLAYER PREPARED TO ENTER INTO AN ARRANGEMENT TO PAY DEBT 

Considered one of the most dangerous players in front of goal, Mabena said he was prepared to enter into some sort of arrangement with SARS to pay the bill, as he could not afford to make a full payment. "I will speak to SARS so we can make arrangements, because I know they can garnishee my salary here at Polokwane City or worse go into my account and start taking money from it without my knowledge," he said, indicating he was worried the taxman will employ's its well-known and feared move against tax dodgers. In its court papers, the taxman said they served several correspondences to the soccer players address in Bloemfontein at a complex he used to reside, but said no response was received either to acknowledge the debt or make payment arrangements. But Mabena told ZiMoja, the letters were bound to miss him because he was no longer residing in Bloemfontein because he left the area three years ago. " Of course, I was using that address when I was still playing for Celtic. But I left that place three years ago when the club was bought by Royal AM and we relocated to KZN. That's why I never received those correspondences from them," he said. 

SARS EXTEND OLIVE BRANCH 

Attached to the court application was also a final letter of demand, which shows was sent to Mabena's address in Bloemfontein. In the letter of demand also seen by Zimoja, SARS states that Mabena failed to pay tax for more than one year, and he was advised to make payment in business working days. "According to the record of the South African Revenue Services (SARS) you have failed to pay your tax debt for one and more tax years and tax periods. Overdue amount: R575 247.15 latest account statement. You are requested to make full payment within 10 business working days from the date of this letter of demand," reads part of the letter. In the same letter SARS offered Mabena other options to pay the debt, indicating that he could make arrangements to settle the debt in installments, if he could not afford to make a full payment. Other options included that he could apply for the suspension of the debt in case he planned to file a dispute of the debt. Failure to exercise any of the offered options, SARS, the letter shows, said it would approach any of the entities or person who owed the soccer player money, and use the money to settle the debt or part of it. Another option, SARS said it would be to obtain a civil judgement against Mabena which will in turn lead to a warrant of execution against any of the soccer player assets through an auction.