SARS claims early e-filing success

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 18 Sep 2007

Fifty-thousand South Africans had by yesterday morning filed their 2006/7 income tax returns via the Internet, says the SA Revenue Service (SARS).

Taxpayers have until 31 October to file their income tax returns. To date, about a million have done so.

"SARS is encouraged by the submission rate of returns to date since about five million newly-designed and simplified tax forms were issued to taxpayers from July this year," says spokesman Adrian Lackay. "The increased use of the electronic submission facility - e-filing - is also encouraging."

He adds that a year-to-date comparison indicates a much higher rate of submission of tax returns than previously, "which is a very positive trend both in terms of public awareness and a growing climate of compliance in general".

SARS is encouraging South Africans to file their income tax returns online. E-filing is part of a R140 million modernisation drive at the tax collector.

SARS commissioner Pravin Gordhan earlier this year said the e-filing system will provide taxpayers a "secure, easy and friendly mechanism to work through".

"Our plan is to decrease the number of people at the back-end of our operations and increase the number of people either providing service and education outreach, or on the enforcement side," he said at the time.

"Over the next five years or so, as this back-office machinery becomes leaner, as we automate our processes internally, you are going to get this repositioning in the system."

Gordhan added that the R140 million budgeted for the upgrade is paying for the use of Adobe 8.1, which allows taxpayers to complete and submit their income tax forms online.

It is also paying for the redrafting of the pro forma, printing, setting up new scanning machinery, "reorganising our pipelines around the country, training staff, reorienting staff, etc," said Gordhan.