 SARS court case with Mark Lipman over R388M in outstanding taxes takes a new turn. Cape Town, the protracted case in which the SA Revenue Service, SARS, seeks to recover R388M from controversial businessman Mark Lipman took another turn in the High Court on Tuesday when a third party sought to intervene in the case. Both the lawyers for Lipman and SARS refuse to divulge the identity of the third party or release copies of the court papers. SARS has been seeking, since 2015, to recover the outstanding tax, asking the court to liquidate his various businesses to recoup the money, but Lipman insists the businesses are viable and must only be placed under business rescue. The amount is confirmed in an affidavit from senior SARS manager Keith Hendricks and papers presented to its attorneys, Macroberts Incorporated. In papers, SARS maintains that the commencement of business rescue proceedings is yet another strategy in an ongoing effort by Lipman to evade settling the Lipman group's tax debts. His woes started when the court granted SARS an order to commence an inquiry into non-compliance for years of assessment. The inquiry began on May 26, 2014 and continued until June 2015. Hendricks, in his founding affidavit, said, I point out that Mr. Lipman and Seasons' fine 764 cubic centimeters failed to comply with the prescribed procedure and failed to furnish SARS with the complete set of documents pertaining to the commencement of business rescue proceedings. SARS maintains that the commencement of business rescue proceedings is yet another stratagem in an ongoing effort by Lipman to frustrate SARS in collection and recovery of the tax debts he owes to it. Furthermore, Mr. Lipman, in conducting the financial affairs of Seasons' fine 764 cubic centimeters and the entities controlled by him, did so with a flagrant disregard and abuse of the separate legal personality of the entities. The inquiry revealed that Mr. Lipman indiscriminately transfers funds between and among himself and Seasons' fine 764 cubic centimeters, and the entities managed and controlled by him, without having any regard to the fact that the property, gains, debts, and liabilities of the entities belong to it and not to him. Seasons' fine 764 cubic centimeters is factually insolvent and the business rescue plan set up by the business rescue practitioner shows there is no reasonable prospect for rescuing. But Lipman, in his affidavit, denies any negligence for fraudulent intent. I admit that as a result of poor accounting personnel, mine, and that of my group entities erred in its tax affairs. The processes I have adopted are an attempt to regularize the tax affairs and to allow a forum of tax compliance. The Seasons' fine 764 cubic centimeters is financially distressed because it cannot pay all its creditors out of the current earnings, Lipman said.