With Filing Season for the 2024 tax year set to commence in July, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced that the pool of taxpayers who will be auto-assessed will increase to about 4.8 million this year compared to about 3.8 million taxpayers last year.
This as the revenue service announced 15 July 2024 as the start of the Filing Season for provisional and non-provisional taxpayers who are required to file a tax return.
Auto-assessments for an expanded pool of taxpayers will run from the 1 -14 July 2024.
“In line with the strategic objective of making it easy and simple for taxpayers to meet their legal obligations, SARS is proud to announce that the pool of taxpayers who will be auto-assessed will increase to about 4.8 million this year compared to about 3.8 million taxpayers last year.
“Taxpayers who agree with the auto-assessment do not have to do anything. If a refund is due, it will be paid within 72 hours. If tax is due to SARS, the taxpayer must make the payment by the due date,” SARS said.
If a taxpayer does not agree with the auto-assessment, they should make all applicable changes and file their return the normal way via eFiling or the SARS MobiApp on or before 21 October 2024, the closing date for non-provisional taxpayers.
“Taxpayers whose contact details, including an email address and cell phone number, as well as banking details, have changed must update these details on eFiling or the SARS MobiApp to facilitate an easy and seamless Filing Season. The update of this information goes a long way to preventing fraud and identity theft,” SARS said.
SARS commissioner, Edward Kieswetter, has assured taxpayers that SARS remains committed to its goal of making Filing Season for standard taxpayers an invisible process that requires little or no action from the taxpayer, due to the use of big data, machine learning and algorithms.
“The large number of digital platforms available to taxpayers reinforces the trend of a decreasing number of taxpayers needing to visit branches and wait in queues,” Kieswetter said.
Compliance
The Commissioner has urged taxpayers to be transparent and accurate when filing their tax returns to enable a constructive relationship with SARS.
“The use of technology and data has enhanced SARS’ ability to detect instances of non-compliance. Taxpayers must not inflate their expenses and under-declare their income to obtain impermissible refunds. Not including rental income is an example. Such actions will make the taxpayer potentially guilty of fraud.
“It is expected that in the first two weeks of July and the first two weeks of October, as many taxpayers rush to engage SARS, there may be instances where taxpayers may need to wait longer than usual to be serviced,” said the commissioner.
The filing season for Trusts commences on 16 September 2024 - 20 January 2025.
Taxpayers who are auto-assessed but who wish to claim the solar tax rebate must complete their tax return and file it in the normal way.
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