2018 tax season shortened by three weeks
The rationale behind the shorter filing season allows additional time for SARS, taxpayers and the tax fraternity to deal with return verifications
To streamline the SA Revenue Services (SARS), the 2018 tax season has been shortened by three weeks, running from July 1 to October 31.
This impacts all individual non-provisional taxpayers and also applies to provisional taxpayers who opt to file at a branch.
Provisional taxpayers who use eFiling have until January 31, 2019 to file. The deadline for manual submissions is September 21.
The rationale behind the shorter filing season allows additional time for SARS, taxpayers and the tax fraternity to deal with return verifications before most taxpayers go on the December holiday break.
Often there are delays with taxpayers having to respond to SARS queries and requests over the holiday break. The quiet period after the first three months of tax season has now been removed resulting in efficient use of our resources.
At a media briefing on June 4, SARS’ acting commissioner Mark Kingon said they had also sent personalised and direct communication to taxpayers who may not have to submit a return, based on information submitted during the 2017 tax season.
A taxpayer does not need to submit a return if ALL the following criteria apply:
• The taxpayer’s total employment income/salary for the year of assessment (March 2017 to February 2018) before tax was not more than R350 000
• Employment income/salary for the year of assessment was received from one employer
• The taxpayer has no other form of income (eg car allowance, company car fringe benefit, business income, taxable interest or rental income or income from another job)
• The taxpayer does not want to claim for any additional allowable tax-related deductions or rebates (eg medical expenses, retirement annuity contributions, travel expenses, etc).
Taxpayers are encouraged to file via eFiling on their own. SARS supports eFilers with the Help-You-eFile service which connects the taxpayer to a tax agent in real time via the contact centre while both are online. The taxpayer is then assisted each step of the way.
Tax returns for the current year of assessment will take priority over outstanding returns filed for prior years. Unfortunately, experience has shown that the submission of prior year returns poses a risk to taxpayers that are taken in by scammers and other tax fraud that we have detected.
Where an assessment on one return may reflect a refund due, there may be instances where prior returns may reflect that the taxpayer needs to make a payment. These amounts will be offset against each other and the taxpayer will be notified of the outcome.
Tax practitioners are requested to strictly use eFiling for submitting taxpayer returns and avoid doing so at a branch.
Administrative penalties for late submissions will be imposed, as they have been in previous years.
“We have been hard at work taking stock of how we can be more efficient and improve service to taxpayers. This requires that we make better use of our resources and technology, while factoring in feedback from taxpayers on what their pain-points are,” Kingon said.
“Our main objective is to make tax compliance a simple and routine experience for the taxpayer. This is a work in progress, and we will be refining our initiatives with every tax season, over the next two years, taking on board the lessons learned.”
