Lucky Montana's tax woes hold some key lessons for taxpayers

The politician's case shows how small oversights can lead to big financial penalties.

- By Neesa Moodley

Lucky Montana.

(Photo: Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images)

Although South Africans may not be particularly sympathetic to the financial misfortune of politician Lucky Montana, who was rather publicly called out by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) on 11 October, there are valuable lessons to be learnt from his experience.

Like any financial relationship, your dealings with SARS go both ways. Generally, if you play fair, so does SARS. The extreme instance in which SARS revealed Montana's tax dealings was in response to him making false public statements.

And the public, by and large, has not been particularly sympathetic.

These are the key lessons you can take away from Montana's tax misadventures: