You don't have to stress-make Sars tax season easy on yourself

28 Jul 2024

With convenient technology and systems such as e-filing, the days of cumbersome and complicated tax return filings are over. Still, there are ways to ensure it’s a totally stress-free experience.

The tax season for individuals has been open officially since 15 July and will run until 24 October for individual or non-provisional taxpayers, while provisional taxpayers will have until 20 January 2025 to submit their returns.

Here are some tips to help you keep your tax affairs in tip-top shape:

Check prepopulated information

If you are using e-filing, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) usually prepopulates your return with information from your employer, medical scheme and investment providers. Be sure to cross-check the information on the return with the tax certificates issued to you. If any information has been incorrectly captured, ask your employer or the relevant financial institution to update it so that it reflects correctly on e-filing before you file your return.

Use the calculate tool

SARS conveniently provides a calculate tool that you can use to check your return before you submit it. If you are expecting a bigger refund or suddenly owe a large amount, you can still go back and review your documents to make sure you are submitting the correct figures. It also avoids getting nasty surprises at a later stage.

Age of your supporting documents

Generally, you need to keep your supporting documents for tax purposes for five years. However, if you file late, the five-year period only starts on the date you file. For example, if you file your 2022 return in 2024, you should keep the supporting documents until 2029. If you have no documentation, you can enter into an agreed assessment, where SARS assesses you based on the information you have. This is an audited process.

Round up supporting documents

Make sure you have all the necessary documents before you start filing your return. You need your IRP5 or IT3a tax certificates, medical tax certificates (from your medical scheme), retirement annuity certificates (from the company you invested with) and a logbook if you receive a travel allowance.

Submitting supporting documents

SARS has very specific requirements when it comes to submitting supporting documents. Documents may not be more than 5MB per upload and a maximum of 10 documents may accompany a single submission. Documents must be in one of the following formats: PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, GIF, JPG, JPEG, BMP and PNG. Check that your documents are not password-protected or encrypted.

Reduce your documents’ size

If your document files are larger than 5MB, you can go to a SARS office with them so that they can be scanned and returned to you, or you can make copies and have them delivered to a SARS office.

Money Cents reader Bruce Sobey writes that you can also reduce the size of your documents by “printing to PDF”. “If the documents are still too big, you can compress the PDF. This can be done for free on the Adobe site: www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/compress-pdf.html,” he said.

Objections

If you don’t agree with SARS’s assessment, you have the right to file an objection, which must be submitted within 80 business days after the date of your assessment or SARS’s decision.

Penalties

Bear in mind that you face administrative penalties if you file your tax return late. Previously, penalties only kicked in when two or more tax returns were outstanding. But as from December 2021, SARS levies administrative penalties when more than one tax return is outstanding. These penalties are based on your taxable income, and they can range from R250 to R16,000 for each month that the return is outstanding. These penalties start to mount from the first day that the return is late.

Tax complaints

If you have a complaint against SARS, you have to lodge it first with the SARS Complaints Management Office at a SARS branch, via e-filing, or by calling 0860 121216. The complaints office has 21 business days to resolve complaints lodged with it. If your complaint is not resolved within this time period, you can lodge a complaint with the office of the Tax Ombud by emailing [email protected] or calling the Tax Ombud contact centre on 0800 662 837. Both complaint channels are free of charge. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

You may write a letter to the DM168 editor at [email protected] sharing your views on this story. Letters will be curated, edited and considered for publication in our weekly newspaper on our readers’ views page.

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