Pretoria, 21 July 2015 — The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is pleased to confirm that by 13:00 yesterday (20 July 2015) it had passed the 1 million mark with respect to income tax returns submitted by taxpayers. This is encouraging and an important compliance measure for SARS as it indicates that 23.07% of taxpayers who are required to submit a tax return have already done so compared to 18.79% at the same time last year.
Since the beginning of Tax Season on 1 July 2015, when taxpayers could officially commence completing and submitting their 2015 tax returns, 610 067 (60.96%) of taxpayers have used eFiling to complete and submit their returns while 388 058 (38.78%) of taxpayers opted to file a branch whilst a mere 2661 (0.27%) taxpayer opted to submit manually via post or drop box.
“This achievement sends out a very positive compliance message by taxpayers as well as their confidence in the South African Revenue Service. On behalf of the South African Revenue Service I would like to thank taxpayers for their willingness to meet their tax obligations and responsibilities. This has certainly made our job easier this year. For our part we will continuously strive to make your interaction with us as seamless, efficient, simple and convenient as possible. And we will treat you with fairness, dignity and respect which as the shareholders of our country you richly deserve,” said Commissioner Moyane.
Deadline Dates for the 2015 Tax Season
- The deadline for taxpayers who submit their tax returns manually by post or by dropping them off in a SARS drop box is 30 September 2015.
- The deadline for all non-provisional taxpayers is 27 November 2015. Non-provisional taxpayers are the majority of employed individuals who submit a tax return and who earn an income from one or more employer.
- The deadline for Provisional taxpayers who submit returns via eFiling is 29 January 2016. Provisional taxpayers form a much smaller segment of the tax base and are those individuals with other forms of income like investment income, income from business activities, rental income, royalties income or directors of companies
