Having recently celebrated the success of becoming the most-streamed South African female artist on Spotify, award-winning singer Makhadzi now has to face the music regarding her taxes.
According to ZiMoja, a source revealed that Makhadzi (whose real name is Ndivhudzannyi Ralivhona) owes the South African Revenue Service (SARS) over R6-million since finding her success in the music industry. Documents seen by the publication shows that for the past few years, the singer allegedly failed to file her taxes and was unaware that she was not paying for taxes and VAT on mostly bookings and endorsements.
The source, who blames Makhadzi’s former record label (Open Mic Productions) and previous manager, Rita Dee, states that the Ghanama hitmaker worked with two managers. However, both management companies failed to assist her with filing her taxes.
“This has caused a heavy backlog for the singer. When she joined Open Mic, she was already owing and the debt accumulated,” added the insider, who also noted that Makhadzi, who is the owner of multiple homes, cannot afford to have her properties taken away.
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ZiMoja also shares that Makhadzi’s current manager – Lucky Tshilimandila – confirmed that the star owes the taxman and is in the process of settling her debt.
“Yes, we acknowledge the debt. It goes back to 2016. Makhadzi currently has an arrangement with SARS,” said Lucky. “We want to make sure that we do everything according to the book. We went out and got new accountants to deal directly with the issue. The same way we got a legal team to take care of all paperwork and legalities.”
Adding that “Makhadzi is learning,” Lucky also stated, “We can put the blame on her when she doesn’t give a great performance on stage but we can’t blame her for accounting issues and tax matters.”
Despite what Lucky mentioned above, Open Mic Productions boss Lionel Jamela told ZiMoja that artists are responsible for their taxes. “You register yourself at SARS, you do your filling like every employee in any company, that is standard procedure.”
Also see: Makhadzi named Spotify’s most-streamed South African female artist
