SARS: 2 million returns in less than three months

South African taxpayers have submitted over two million tax returns to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in a record-breaking eleven weeks since the start of Tax Season 2011 on 1 July.

During last year’s Tax Season it took taxpayers 14 weeks to submit two million returns to SARS.

To date 2,043,759 number of returns have been received, which is 288 389 more than the same period last year – an increase 16 percent.

In addition, it took just 10 weeks for 1 million tax returns to be submitted via eFiling this year, compared to 14 weeks last year.

This once again reflects the growing popularity of eFiling as a free, safe and convenient channel for interacting with SARS and through which a taxpayer can submit a return, make payments and track the progress of their assessment.

Ninety - eight percent (98%) of returns submitted were captured using SARS electronic filing platforms – eFiling and at SARS branches where taxpayers are assisted to file their returns electronically.

Judging by the number of returns filed, the message to taxpayers to file early, honestly and electronically is getting across - in line with this year’s Tax Season communication campaign of ‘taking the”eish” out of ‘tax-eish-ion’

SARS Commissioner Oupa Magashula attributes the success of Tax Season 2011 to an improved compliance culture by taxpayers who have noticed the benefits of filing their returns early in the filing period.

These benefits include the faster turn-around times in assessing returns and quicker refunds to taxpayers. It also means that taxpayers avoid any possible congestion at SARS branches as the deadline for submission approaches.

For the remainder of 2011 Tax Season SARS will be setting up points of service at selected shopping malls and libraries around the country to assist taxpayers to file their returns. These additional points of service, per province are:

Western Cape: Somerset Mall, Khayelitsha Mall, N1 City Shopping Centre, Kenilworth Centre and Promenade Shopping Centre - Mitchells Plain.

Gauteng: Fourways Mall, Jabulani Mall - Soweto, The Glen Mall – Alberton, President Hyper – Fochville, Kolonnade Mall – Montana (Pretoria North), Central City Mall –Soshanguve, Irene Mall,

Mpumalanga: Kwagqa Plaza –Witbank.

KwaZulu-Natal: Chatsworth Centre, Galleria – Amanzimtoti, South Coast Mall –Shelly Beach, The Oval Checkers – Ladysmith and Taxi City Spar – Newcastle.

In addition the following branches will be open on Saturdays from 08h00 to 13h00 —

Bellville, Cape Town, East London, Port Elizabeth, George, Durban, Pretoria CBD, Randburg, Rissik Street (Johannesburg), Roodepoort, Rustenburg and Umtata (09h00 – 13h00).During these hours these branches will ONLY deal with the submission and completion of income tax returns.

The details of the additional points of service are on the SARS website at the link below.

Selected SARS offices will also continue to operate on extended hours from 07h30 -18h00 weekdays for the duration of Tax Season.

SARS believes that such initiatives to extend the SARS service to taxpayers have contributed to the improvement in taxpayer and trader compliance.

Taxpayers are reminded of the following deadlines:

• The deadline for postal submissions (paper tax returns) for provisional and non-provisional taxpayers is Friday 30 September 2011
• Taxpayers who use eFiling or come into a branch where SARS consultants capture their returns on computer have until Friday 25 November 2011.
• Provisional taxpayers who file via eFiling have until Tuesday 31 January 2012 to submit returns

For the full schedule of additional point s of service click on the following link:

SARS Points of Service for September to November 2011