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14 November 2012 – End of Tax Season approaching-Nine days left to submit tax returns

14 November 2012 – End of Tax Season approaching-Nine days left to submit tax returns

Pretoria, 14 November 2012 — SARS would like to remind taxpayers that there are just days remaining for the majority of individual taxpayers and trusts to submit their annual income tax returns.

To assist taxpayers during this final peak period, the following SARS branches will be open on Saturday 17 November 2012 from 8am to 1pm to assist taxpayers with their returns—

  • Region 1 (Gauteng) – Randburg, Rissik, Vereeniging, Edenvale, Alberton and Roodepoort
  • Region 2 (Gauteng) – Pretoria CBD and Ashlea Gardens
  • Region 3 (KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape) – Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Mthatha
  • Region 4 (Eastern Cape And Western Cape) – Cape Town, Bellville and Port Elizabeth

In addition the SARS Contact Centre will extend its hours to assist taxpayers over the next 10 days as follows:

  • On weekdays, until Friday 16th November, from 0800 – 1900
  • On Saturday 19th November, from 0900 – 1400
  • For the week of 19th to 23rd November, from 0800 – 2000

To date almost 3.7 million income tax returns have been submitted to SARS for the 2012 Tax Season – an increase of 20% over the same period last year.

Including outstanding returns from previous years, the total number of returns submitted since Tax Season started on 1 July 2012 exceeds 4.5 million.

Of the 3 718 675 returns submitted for 2012, only 5 422(five thousand four hundred and twenty two) returns have been submitted in manual (paper) format, a 75% decrease in manual filing compared to the 2011 Tax Season.

SARS wants to thank the many millions of taxpayers have already submitted their returns and who have demonstrated that everyone can be good at tax. With the deadline of Friday 23 November approaching, SARS wants to urge all taxpayers who have not yet submitted their tax returns to do so as soon as possible, to avoid being caught in the final rush and to avoid penalties for late submission which start at R250 per month for each return which is outstanding.

It should be noted that yesterday (Tuesday 13 November 2012) alone, a total of 27 213 returns were submitted and it is expected this number will increase significantly over the next 9 days. During the same period last year, submissions at branches and on eFiling swelled to over 100 000 a day. SARS has a range of options available to those who want to complete their returns themselves. These include SARS eFiling, the Help-You-eFile system, and the option of filing on a range of mobile devices.

Provisional taxpayers who file their returns via eFiling have until Thursday 31 January 2013 to submit returns.

For assistance with filing a tax return, taxpayers can use the Help-You-eFile function on eFiling, call the SARS Contact Centre on 0800 00 7277, or visit a SARS branch.

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