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Pretoria - Last year few taxpayers successfully managed the novelty of requesting their tax return forms by post.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) therefore plans to reconsider this practice.
SARS statistics for last year show that most taxpayers preferred to visit a branch office and fill their forms in there and then.
In November, as the deadline for the submission of returns in the traditional manner (by hand or by post) approached, more than 300 000 taxpayers streamed to SARS offices.
Fewer than 100 000 returns were submitted by post that month.
Last year Sake24.com received a number of complaints about the requests for individualised returns. The letter was aimed at sending taxpayers returns tailor-made to their requirements. Someone who, for example, received a salary without any benefits could ask for a form requiring only basic information.
A person with additional income, directors or people with farming operations could ask for a more comprehensive form.
Many received no form at all, despite early submission of the return request.
And many eventually received incorrect returns.
SARS spokesperson Adrian Lackay said the concept of the tax return request would be reassessed since so few taxpayers had made use of it.
Of the almost 1.5m returns submitted by the first week of December, 1.1m have already been processed.
It would appear that considerably more returns were processed in 2007 than have been so far for the 2008 tax year.
In 2007 1.5m returns for the income category of R120 000 and more were processed compared to 615 415 for 2008.
Outstanding returns requiring processing, according to 2007?s figures, represent 67% of the total due.
SARS points out that these figures do not make provision for electronic returns, which may still be submitted to January 23.
Significantly more returns were submitted electronically in the first three months of 2008 than in the same three months of 2007.
According to SARS, 54 077 people submitted their returns in this way in 2007, compared to 597 472 in 2008.
- For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.