Radical shake-up will threaten advisers – experts

However, according to a Business Day report, industry experts have warned the changes threaten the livelihoods of about 17 000 tax practitioners and advisers registered with SARS as they will make it easier for taxpayers to fill in their own tax returns. ‘The simplified tax return is bound to cut down on the work of tax advisers,’ said Liesl Kruger, a tax director at commercial law firm Cliffe Dekker. The new self-assessment system would also put the onus on the taxpayer to ensure that the amounts disclosed in the return are correct, Kruger said. Beric Croome, a tax director at corporate law advisers Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs, said the implementation of the new return was likely to have an effect on the role of tax advisers who do work on behalf of individuals.‘ Full Business Day report

Taxpayers will no longer have to include any supporting documents with their tax returns. According to a report on the FIN24 site, SARS said the system would make it ‘considerably easier’ for individuals and business taxpayers to complete and file their returns. It would also ensure greater efficiency and turnaround times in the capturing, verification and assessment of taxpayer information. As part of the overhaul, all taxpayers, and not just businesses, will be able to file their tax returns online via the SARS e-filing Web site. When completed online, it updates a 2D barcode which automatically captures all the taxpayer\'s information. The form can be printed out, signed and submitted to SARS. By registering with e-filing, taxpayers will no longer be required to submit supporting documents such as IRP5s and IT3 forms, medical bills, logbooks or petrol slips, as SARS has started using data-mining technology to source and match third-party data from employers, financial institutions, medical aids and the like. The most common tax return, the IT12S completed by 3.5m taxpayers, has been reduced from a 10-page to a two-page document. Also, the complexity of the forms has been reduced Full FIN24 report SARS e-filing site

The department is urging taxpayers to file their returns online. Manuel promised the IT needed to do so was in place and stable. ‘We will ensure the back office is in place, that the system is tested and doesn\'t collapse on the day it is switched on,’ he said according to a report on the ITWeb site. Manuel said the country now had seven million registered taxpayers (out of a population of 45m) and the number was increasing at a rate of about 8% a year. ‘This volume growth places a tremendous strain on the current capacity and is challenging the service level promised in the SARS service charter,’ he explained. This will translate into 20 million items of post a year by 2010, eight million visits by taxpayers to SARS offices nationwide, nine million calls to the SARS contact centre and 18 million processing actions. ‘The scale is just impossible,’ Manuel says, who was also told by SARS Commissioner Pravin Gordhan the taxman now has over half a billion documents in its storerooms – and the floors of some tax offices were cracking under the weight. Full report on the ITWeb site