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Pretoria - Tax returns will change - again.
The main reason is to eliminate frustration, confusion and complexity from the form. One of the biggest frustrations last year was the introduction of the form to request a tax return.
Marco Granelli, senior marketing management of SA Revenue Service (Sars), says that after research and thorough reflection it has been decided to retain the form, despite various problems encountered.
But the form will now be completed beforehand, using information that appeared on the 2008 return.
If nothing has changed, the form needs to be merely signed and returned.
If people's particulars have changed - for example, if they changed jobs or sold assets - they need to indicate the changes and send the form back for a new form reflecting these changes.
Last year many taxpayers were at their wit's end over wrong forms received, incorrect information already filled in on the forms, and serious frustration in getting answers from the call centre.
Technical problems with the number of IRP5 certificates on the request forms also had to be dealt with, said Granelli.
The requesting of returns through the call centre is being reviewed. According to Granelli, this process is very cumbersome and very few taxpayers made use of this option.
Changes to the returns for individuals include combining the sections for farming and business income, new codes for medical contributions that are not indicated on the tax certificates, and additional bank details.
According to Granelli the pre-completion of the returns was a huge success and 97% of the individual taxpayers did not alter their returns, while almost a million taxpayers visited SARS branch offices to complete their returns last year.
Some taxpayers said they did so in desperation. They had not received the return applied for via the request form.
Taxpayers and practitioners have until March 17 to comment on the changes.
The period for traditional submission of returns moves back to July 1 this year. The deadline for individuals and trusts is September 18. Electronic submissions (individuals and trusts) have until November 20.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.