Sanchia Temkin
13 November 2009
Johannesburg — TAXPAYERS in SA can expect to have their tax returns completed by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in the near future.
"All they have to do is sign the tax return," SARS commissioner Oupa Magashula said yesterday.
SARS's goal is to move towards a "pre-filled in" system for the majority of salaried taxpayers. All information supplied to SARS by third parties, including the taxpayer's liability, would also be communicated to the taxpayer.
This would tighten up enforcement of tax laws by the tax collector and ease the administrative burden on the taxpayer.
Magashula said there was more electronic interaction between SARS and taxpayers nowadays. About 95% of the 2,8-million taxpayers who had already submitted their tax returns had been assessed within 24 hours. Last year SARS introduced the customised, prepared tax return for taxpayers.
Magashula said tax administrators at the African Tax Administration Forum, which would be formally launched in Uganda next week, would be discussing a number of issues such as countering tax evasion and tax avoidance, exchange of information, tax havens, the taxation of minerals, oil and gas, and the taxation of financial instruments.
The conference would be attended by 160 delegates from more than 32 African countries, and other states. The decision to establish the African Tax Administration Forum was taken at an international conference on taxation and capacity development in Africa held in SA last year.
Research shows that African economies attract little direct foreign investment, partly because of institutional capacity constraints, and continue to suffer revenue losses through international capital flight.
"SA cannot operate as an island," Magashula said. Big companies, such as retail and mining companies are doing big business across the continent, he said. Some of these are causing import losses to other jurisdictions.
Magashula said tax administrators would need to strengthen their co-operation and share information if they were to manage multinationals effectively.
He said SA was moving toward closing the tax gap. However, there were still 3-million outstanding tax returns. However, it was difficult to say how much money was owing .
"As a result we are still not able to quantify the tax gap. We have to be certain that we can depend on a figure and explain it before we release any percentage," he said.
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