FICA was put in place to protect us against money laundering and tax evasion in
SA.
- FICA relates to Toyota’s Financial Services in that we need, “to know our clients”.
Therefore car dealerships must carefully check proof of your identity document
as well as proof of your residential address.
- Tax evasion and money laundering is a serious offence.
- Any person convicted of such an offence is liable for imprisonment (not exceeding
15 years) and a fine (not exceeding R10 million).
- Any Toyota Dealership not implementing these rules, can be jailed (not exceeding
5 years) and fined (for a maximum of R1 million).
- For example: If you come in with R210 00.00 in cash, we are obligated by law to ask you
where you got the money from.
- If you tell us you’ve been keeping it in your safe, we must document this and you’ll
need to sign to verify it.
- Cash that seems suspicious may come from an illegal source and Toyota Financial Services is duty-bound
to inform the Financial Intelligence Centre.
- The Financial Intelligence Centre office is linked via computer
to SARS, SAPS, NATIS, INTERPOL as well as property registration offices nationally.
- They
can trace all your activities simply by having your ID number.