- Employer Filing Season
The Employer Interim Reconciliation Declaration (EMP501) submission period closes on October 31. Employers with less than 50 employees can use either Sars eFiling or e@syFile™ Employer to submit their reconciliation documents.
Employers are advised to ensure that they submit on or before the deadline to avoid late penalties. An employer who files their EMP501 late will be penalised under the provisions of paragraph 14(6) of the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act. The penalty will equal 1% of the year’s PAYE, for each month that the return is late, up to 10% of the year’s PAYE.
“It is very important for employers to file accurate and complete EMP501’s. Sars uses the information received through your submission of an EMP501 to populate auto-assessments and income tax returns on behalf of your employees. Incomplete or inaccurate information will negatively affect your employees’ ability to meet their tax obligations. In practice, your incomplete or inaccurate information may result in significant delays of refunds to your employees when due,” says the revenue service.
- Debt Management Payment Arrangement Request
Until recently, taxpayers could only make payment arrangements during engagement with a Sars agent, in person at a Sars branch, utilising the debt management regional emails, or on their My Compliance Profile on eFiling. This changed from September 10.
Sars has now implemented an enhanced debt management process to enable taxpayers with outstanding debt to initiate a Request for Payment Arrangement via eFiling for four tax types: personal and corporate income tax, value-added tax (VAT) and Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE). Administrative penalties can also be settled through this channel. This is a positive stride towards making it easier for taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations.
Taxpayers are now able to initiate a payment arrangement request for outstanding debt on eFiling from the following sources: Statement of Account (SOA); SOA admin penalties; Return Work Page; Notice of Assessment; Notice of Assessment for administrative penalties; My Compliance Profile functionality; Final Demand Letter; and Final Demand Reminder Letter.
The September 10 enhancements of the payment arrangement process on eFiling will enable taxpayers to:
- initiate a payment arrangement, with an instalment plan of up to 36 months,
- supply the reason for the request and preferred method of payment,
- attach mandatory supporting documents where required, and
- submit the request if they meet qualifying criteria.
- Self-help platform:
SMMEs are reminded about the easy-to-use online self-help platform/query system accessible via the Sars website (click on the “Online Services” icon on the home page) to raise queries/perform various functions without having to go into a branch. To use the self-help/query system, taxpayers simply need to complete the online form by selecting a Query Type, completing a set of required information fields, attaching supporting documentation where necessary and submitting the data to Sars for processing and review.
You can use the online platform to:
- request a tax number,
- submit supporting documents,
- submit a payment allocation,
- report new estate cases,
- register a tax representative,
- make tax compliance status requests, and
- verify your tax compliance status.
- Tax Relief Measures
Sars introduced a number of relief measures to assist businesses affected both by the Covid-19 lockdown and the unrest earlier this year. To unlock the tax relief the taxpayers must maintain their compliance status. For more info on these, go to the Sars website, search for the “Small Businesses” page and click on the 2021 Tax Relief Measures leaflet.
Remember, if you don’t submit your income tax return on time, you may be liable for penalties.
