Auto-assessments relieving filing burden on 3 million taxpayers, says SARS
With the tax season kicking off on Friday, the South African Revenue Service says it has made significant changes this year.
Over three million individual non-provisional taxpayers have been auto-assessed by the taxman and will not have to file a tax return if they are satisfied with the outcome.
"The introduction of the auto-assessment is among other enhancers this year in line with SARS's journey of building a smart modern revenue service with unquestionable integrity," says KZN's taxpayer engagement consultant Martin Naidoo.
"Technology, the use of data, artificial intelligence, and algorithms will enable SARS to make it easier for taxpayers to comply with their legal obligations."
READ: SARS: 3 million taxpayers won’t have to file tax returns
Naidoo has encouraged taxpayers to file as soon as possible.
He says they will impose penalties on taxpayers that deliberately attempt to claim impermissible expenses or understate their income, as well as those that do not adhere to the applicable deadlines of this filing season.
"If they are required to submit a tax return, we will generally require that you submit by the gazetted date itself.
"Failure to do so, what will happen is the taxpayer who is not on the auto-assessment population it remains a criminal offence not to file your tax returns so what will happen is a penalty will be imposed on the tax payer who files after the closing date of the 24th of October 2022."
