The South African Revenue Service SARS has warned taxpayers that the filing season for provisional taxpayers ends on February .
SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter said taxpayers are encouraged to use the revenue collector’s eFiling or the SARS MobiApp, which is a convenient and safe online method to transact with SARS under the current circumstances.
He urged taxpayers who received auto-assessment notices last year, but who have not yet either accepted the auto-assessments or edited and filed a return in response to the notice, to make use of this opportunity to do so.
Kieswetter also urged these taxpayers to comply with their legal obligations by February , as it is vital that all taxpayers remain compliant.
Failure by provisional taxpayers and auto-assessment taxpayers to edit and file a return to comply by this date will result in administrative penalties being levied, he said.
The revenue collector previously extended the deadline from the end of January, due to the ‘unprecedented health challenge of Covid-’.
Kieswetter said the decision to extend the filing season was taken with due consideration of the traumatic effects being experienced by taxpayers who have lost loved ones, as well as businesses who have lost staff, during the devastating second wave of Covid-.
He added SARS has a legislative mandate to collect revenue due and to ensure compliance across all segments of taxpayers, as well as traders in the customs arena. “While SARS believes that most taxpayers and traders comply voluntarily and want to do the right thing, we also have measures we can use to enforce compliance. However, such enforcement always remains a last resort,” the commissioner said.
