Finance minister Tito Mboweni wants the taxman to clamp down on controversial preachers suspected of tax evasion and other related crimes.
At a pre-budget speech press briefing on Wednesday, Mboweni said the government could no longer afford to sit back and watch controversial "men of the cloth" flaunt their wealth while they found creative ways of evading tax.
Mboweni said he had mandated tax experts within the National Treasury and the tax service Sars to tighten up the country's laws governing the tax affairs of religious public-benefit organisations or churches.
Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter said that in terms of the current tax regime, churches were classified as public benefit organisations and were exempt from paying income tax.