A large investment by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in e-filing systems and technology has produced some impressive results, reports TAXtalk, South Africa's leading tax publication.     

Investing in the Future

The estimated R140 million that SARS has spent on upgrading and modernising its tax system is paying off. This is evident from the huge growth in taxpayers submitting their tax returns via e-Filing.

According to SARS spokesperson Adrian Lackay, the biggest success story of the 2007 filing season campaign was the uptake of SARS e-Filing. He added that SARS was encouraged by the rate at which taxpayers and practitioners had adopted electronic filing. Lackay said that by September 2007, more than 940,000 returns had been issued via e-Filing and by the end of October more than 250,000 had been filed. This was an increase of 600% on the previous year. SARS expected about 1 million tax returns to have been filed via e-Filing by January this year.

But e-Filing is just part of the picture of South Africans becoming more tax compliant. By the end of October 2007, 3.2 million taxpayers had filed their tax returns, constituting a 20% increase on the previous year. Said Lackay, “This is the first time we have passed the 3 million returns mark. Tax returns for the current year numbered to more than 2.3 million - an increase of 6%."

Secure, easy and friendly

When SARS launched its new-look tax returns in 2007, Commissioner Pravin Gordhan said that the e-Filing system would provide taxpayers with a “secure, easy and friendly mechanism to work through”.

“Our plan is to decrease the number of people at the back end of our operations and increase the number of people either providing service and education outreach, or on the enforcement side,” he said at the time.

“Over the next five years or so, as this back-office machinery becomes leaner, as we automate our processes internally, you are going to get this repositioning in the system.”

Gordhan added that the R140 million budgeted for the upgrade is paying for the use of Adobe 8.1, which allows taxpayers to complete and submit their income tax forms online.

Enhancements to the system

Taxpayers who wish to make use of the convenience of e-Filing in future should register at www.sarsefiling.co.za.

Several enhancements were made to the e-Filing process since its introduction in 2005. According to the SARS e-Filing website (www.sarsefiling.co.za) these include:

Registration

Feedback from users showed that the registration process for e-Filing made it difficult to use. The registration was consequently simplified with security being enhanced using third-party data verification.

All tax return types

All the different tax return types i.e. IT12S, IT12C, IT14, IT12TR and IT12EI are now available for submission via e-Filing.

Extensions

If taxpayers submitted their 2007 returns via e-Filing, SARS did not levy any additional tax for late submission.

Delayed payment

Certain taxpayers anticipating a liability to SARS were unwilling to use e-Filing because they feared that due to quicker processing, they would have to pay up earlier. To encourage the use of e-Filing for these taxpayers, the due dates for payment of assessed taxes for e-Filers who filed early were delayed to the end of February 2008.

Electronic objections and appeals

Tax practitioners have engaged with SARS to provide an easier and more efficient objection and appeal process. To further encourage e-Filing uptake, the facility would be expanded so that taxpayers can lodge objections and appeals electronically via e-Filing.

Article Added Friday, 02 May 2008 | 1266 Hits

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