Pretoria, 28 March 2012 — The South African Revenue Service (SARS) reminds taxpayers with payments due that the deadline for tax payments is Friday 30 March.
This year 31 March 2011 – the end of the 2011/12 fiscal year – falls on a Saturday (a non-working day) and all tax payments must be made by Friday 30 March (as per the normal rule that the last working day of any month is regarded as the due date).
SARS is expecting payments of several billions of rands tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday this week – more than R30 billion is expected to be banked on Friday alone, making it the third largest revenue collection day in South Africa’s history.
This daily record for collections was exceeded on only two occasions previously – during the current financial year on 30 June 2011 (R36.7 billion) and on 31 December 2011 (R38.7 billion).
The bulk of revenue for the remaining days of this week is anticipated from companies paying provisional tax and VAT collected from vendors and importers.
SARS reminds taxpayers that only payments banked to SARS on the last working day (Friday 30 March 2012) will be reflected as paid on time.
Taxpayers utilising the payment authorisation on the eFiling system should note that “debit pull” payment instructions issued after 18H00 on 30 March 2011 will NOT be banked on the same day and can result in penalties and interest charges for late payments.
To eliminate uncertainty and avoid any risk of late payment SARS urges all taxpayers to pay by no later than 14H00 on Friday 30 March 2012.
In the 2012 Budget in February, the Minister of Finance set a revised revenue collection target of R738.7 billion for SARS for the 2011/12 fiscal year.
The Minister of Finance is scheduled to announce the preliminary outcome of the revenue collection for the year on Sunday 1 April 2012.
ENDS
