26 November 2013
Over 6-million South Africans, representing 91.5% of the country’s eligible taxpayers, submitted their income tax returns for the 2013 tax season, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) reported on Monday.
Of those required to submit a tax return, 91.5% did so on time, an increase of 5.5% from 2012. The total number of returns received by 22 November deadline was 7.7% higher than in 2012.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the increase was recorded despite the threshold for submitting a return having been upped from R120 000 to R250 000, and showed the continued growth in compliance by South Africans.
“The ability to collect tax revenue from individual and corporate citizens to finance the provision of public services and the provision of socio-economic infrastructure has been one of the cornerstones of our democracy these past 20 years,” he said.
Tax refunds
Revenue from individual taxpayers this year amounted to R4.7-billion, which is R1- billion (27.4%) more than the R3.69-billion collected in 2012.
Since the start of the tax season on 1 July, Sars paid refunds of R14.26-billion to 2- million taxpayers, which is R1.4-billion higher than the 2012 figure. Almost 95% of refunds were paid within 72 hours.
Seven years into the migration from manual returns to electronic submission – via eFiling or at a Sars branch office – the changeover is almost absolute, with 99.86% of all returns submitted electronically, up from 98.86% in 2012. Only 6 471 manual or paper returns were submitted this year.
Sars assisted taxpayers at branch offices to submit 2.7-million returns electronically, an increase of 6.1% from 2012.
Returns submitted on eFiling by taxpayers themselves totalled 3.3-million, 7.7% higher than in 2012.
Penalties
Sars also received 1.55-million outstanding returns from previous years, which is 13.3% higher than the 1.4-million outstanding returns submitted the previous year.
Of the 1.55-million outstanding return, defaulting taxpayers paid Sars a total of R674- million in penalties. Sars said it would continue to impose penalties against taxpayers who failed to submit their returns.
Working with the South African Police Service in combating fraud, Sars has arrested 38 individuals who are suspected of having submitted fraudulent claims for tax refunds.
The cases are at various stages of criminal prosecution before the courts. Sars is in the process of recovering about R29.2-million that has been fraudulently claimed as tax refunds.
Sars said it would continue to combat such abuse of the tax system, and cautioned taxpayers not to disclose personal information – ID numbers, tax numbers, banking details and/or eFiling log-on details – to any third party who promised them a tax refund.
Consumption taxes
The annual tax season represents one of the biggest direct engagements between a public institution of the South African government and a growing body of millions of economically active citizens in the country.
Anyone who was formally employed during 2012/13 was required to be registered with Sars, whether they were liable for income tax or not.
Employers deduct PAYE from all taxpayers who are formally employed if they earn more than the tax threshold. PAYE deductions are then paid to Sars by the employer.
On 31 March 2013, there were 15.3-million individuals registered for personal income tax. Although almost 9-million were likely to have earned less than the tax threshold, they also contributed to revenue collection through consumption taxes like VAT (Value Added Tax).
Source: SAnews.gov.za