{"id":25721,"date":"2013-11-26T16:20:43","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T14:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/2013\/11\/91-5-of-taxpayers-submit-return-on-time\/"},"modified":"2013-11-26T16:20:43","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T14:20:43","slug":"91-5-of-taxpayers-submit-return-on-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/91-5-of-taxpayers-submit-return-on-time\/","title":{"rendered":"91.5% of taxpayers submit return on time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has again recorded a remarkable growth in the levels of tax compliance, with 6.09 million income tax returns submitted for the 2013 Tax Season.<\/p>\n

This means 91.5% of taxpayers, who were eligible to submit a tax return this year, did so on-time \u2013 an increase of 5.5% from 2012.<\/p>\n

The total number of returns received by the deadline of 22 November 2013 is 7.7% higher than in 2012, despite the fact the threshold to submit a tax return was substantially increased by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan\u2019s 2013 Budget.<\/p>\n

The threshold adjustment removed the administrative obligation for thousands of taxpayers to submit a return if they earned income below R250 000 a year and did not submit any claims for a tax refund.<\/p>\n

Gordhan said: \u201cThe growth in the number of tax returns filed, despite an increase in the threshold for submitting a return from R120 000 to R250 000, shows the continued growth in tax compliance by fellow South Africans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to collect tax revenue from individual and corporate citizens to finance the provision of public services and the provision of socio-economic infrastructure has been one of the cornerstones of our democracy these past 20 years. On behalf of government, I thank all our taxpayers for submitting their tax returns on time \u2013 you make SA proud!\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the total submissions, SARS also received 1.55 million outstanding returns from previous years, which is 13.3% (182 000) higher than the 1.4 million outstanding returns submitted by the 2012 deadline.<\/p>\n

This indicates that the administrative penalties that SARS imposes for outstanding returns are having the desired effect of improving compliance levels.<\/p>\n

Of the 1.55 million outstanding returns received from previous years, defaulting taxpayers paid a SARS total of R674 million in penalties. SARS said it would continue to impose penalties against taxpayers who do not submit their returns.<\/p>\n

The annual Tax Season represents one of the biggest, direct engagements between a public institution of the South African government and a growing body of millions of economically active citizens in the country.<\/p>\n

Anyone who was formally employed during 2012\/13 was required to be registered with SARS, whether they were liable for income tax or not.<\/p>\n

Employers deduct PAYE from all taxpayers who are formally employed if they earn more than the tax threshold. PAYE deductions are then paid to SARS by the employer.<\/p>\n

On 31 March 2013, there were 15.3 million individuals who were registered for Personal Income Tax although almost 9 million were likely to have earned less than the tax threshold; they also contributed to revenue collection, through consumption taxes like VAT.<\/p>\n

Seven years into the modernisation journey of the income tax system, the migration from manual returns to electronic submission \u2013 via eFiling or at a SARS branch office \u2013 is almost absolute, with 99.86% of all returns submitted electronically (98.86% in 2012).<\/p>\n

Only 6 471 manual or paper returns were submitted this year. SARS assisted many millions of taxpayers at branch offices to submit 2.7 million returns electronically, an increase of 6.1% compared to 2012.<\/p>\n

Returns submitted on eFiling by taxpayers themselves totalled 3.3 million, 7.7% higher than in 2012.<\/p>\n

Working with the South African Police Service (SAPS) in combating fraud, SARS has arrested 38 individuals who are alleged to have submitted fraudulent claims for tax refunds.<\/p>\n

The cases are at various stages of criminal prosecution before the courts. SARS is in the process of recovering about R29.2 million that has been fraudulently claimed as tax refunds.<\/p>\n

SARS will continue to combat such abuse of the tax system and must caution all taxpayers not to disclose personal information \u2013 ID number, tax number, banking details, eFiling log-on details and password \u2013 to any third party who promises them a tax refund.<\/p>\n

Faster turn-around times in assessing returns have enabled SARS to pay income tax refunds much quicker.<\/p>\n

Since the start of the Tax Season on 1 July 2013, refunds of R14.26 billion were paid to 2 million taxpayers, which is R1.4 billion higher than the 2012 figure. In the same period, SARS paid 94.9% of all refunds within 72 hours.<\/p>\n

Tax refunds are a direct contribution to the domestic economy and household incomes.<\/p>\n

Payments from taxpayers this year amounted to R4.7 billion which is R1 billion (27.4%) more than the R3.69 billion paid in 2012. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/p>\n

The following two tabs change content below.<\/span><\/p>\n