The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has noted that vehicles have become a fashionable way to launder money.

The revenue service is clamping down on staff incentives, tax refunds, and what they termed, “exotic transactions”.

SARS large business unit head, Narcizio Makwakwa, there are also tax experts who help design these schemes, and sell them to businesses and corporates.

And once SARS clamps down on one, another pops up.

The revenue service is also concerned about how individuals use trusts to perform exotic transactions that enable them to dodge tax liability.

The focus has been on illicit transactions, particularly money laundering following the release of an Al-Jazeera expose on the Gold Mafia operating in Southern Africa.

Economist, Jannie Rossouw, says that this also means that South Africa will need to work harder to get out of its grey listing.