Trust filing season: Form and system changes to be introduced from 23 June 2023

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced on their website the changes to be implemented from today, 23 June 2023.

Trust-Changes-2023-Stakeholder-Letter.pdf (sars.gov.za)

The changes being introduced include, amongst others:

• Updates to the wizard on the Trust return

- Additional Questions to determine if any Local or Foreign amount(s) were vested in the Trust as a beneficiary of another Trust or deemed to have accrued in terms of s7 during this year of assessment; and the number of Trusts from where these amounts were received.

• A Simplified Return for Passive Trusts

- To provide for a less cumbersome return, where limited Trust specific activities occurred during the year of assessment. The wizard and guide will provide guidance in this regard. The taxpayer must ensure that the correct "type" of return is selected on the first page of the tax return (Income Tax Return Wizard).

• Other enhancements to the Trust Return (ITR12T)

- A new field for credit agreements and debtors’ allowance "Lay Byes" (S24) has been added under both sides of Special Allowances not claimed in the Income Statement and Allowances/Deductions.

- Beneficial Ownership Declaration page to record all beneficial owners and those who may gain financially from the proceeds of the Taxpayer.

- Based on the wizard question above (relating to distributions received from other Trusts), the required number of containers for these distributions will be opened in the return. This will allow taxpayers to provide the detail of the distributions received from other Trusts into the individual containers (e.g. distributions received from 5 other Trusts, 5 containers will automatically be opened).

• Supporting documents to be submitted with the ITR12T.

- All mandatory supporting documents must be uploaded and submitted with the Trust return. This includes, amongst others, the Trust instrument, Annual Financial Statements and resolutions/minutes of trustee meetings. The requirements will vary according to the Trust type. (Use the drop-down menu to check the required supporting documents).

• Enhancements to eFiling

- A pop-up notification when the return type is selected. Should the taxpayer select an incorrect tax type based on their registration, this pop-up notification will alert the taxpayer to select the correct return.