We were approached by a corporate entity to address a number of its staff members on their personal income tax matters.

The aspects addressed in the presentation were as follows:

  1. Why must I submit a tax return?

  2. Who is required to file a tax return?

  3. What if you are still unsure whether you need to file a tax return?

  4. Where can you obtain your tax return?

  5. What does the tax return look like?

  6. How do you complete the tax return?

  7. Who can help you complete your tax return?

After the presentation, I was astounded at the number of people who had questions. We addressed all concerns, with the result that the planned 1 hour presentation turned into a 4 hour exercise. This confirmed just how important this topic is to the man on the street.

The questions that the people asked me were fairly simplistic, but the thing that raised my hair was when I realised that most of them completed their return based on what a friend or their grannies told them! People, the Income Tax Act is amended every year and will not stop being amended.

There is a new piece of legislation called the Tax Administration Act. This act was implemented with effect from 1 October 2012. The purpose of this Act is to ensure the effective and efficient collection of taxes. In other words, this is the legislation that SARS uses to ensure all taxes are paid by the respective deadline dates and therefore, it basically governs the penalty provisions for defaults.

You might think that you are not a guilty party, but the errors that could occur are countless, for example if SARS or the fiscus is prejudiced as a result of:

  1. A default in rendering a return;

  2. An omission from a return;

  3. An incorrect statement in a return; or

  4. If no return is required, the failure to pay the correct amount of ‘tax’.

Now to scare you just a little bit more, a person that is found guilty of a criminal offence could be subject to a fine or to imprisonment!

Even with the big SARS campaign to simplify individual income tax return submissions over the last few years, your personal income tax return can still be a very complicated matter and people do not realise the importance of making the correct and full disclosures in the first instance, as well as to respond in the appropriate manner and within the prescribed timeframes for any subsequent correspondence. For example, should you not agree with your assessment and you do not lodge the dispute in accordance with the rules, SARS has the ability to reject the objection.

Therefore my advice would always be to rather speak to a tax practitioner should you have any concern with regards to you personal income tax return, as well as to consider the value in engaging a tax practitioner to assist with your compliance obligations.  

Engela Crocker

Tax Manager, Johannesburg