SARS restarts e-filing

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 16 Aug 2007

The SA Revenue Service (SARS) has quietly re-activated its new income tax e-filing system and word from the tax collector is that it works.

SARS is encouraging South Africans to file their income tax returns online. It launched its e-filing site, part of a R140 million modernisation drive, with some fanfare on 3 August, a Friday, with the site set to go live the following Monday.

Speaking at the event, SARS commissioner Pravin Gordhan said the e-filing system would provide taxpayers a "secure, easy and friendly mechanism to work through".

Prior to the launch, Barry Hore, SARS GM for strategy, modernisation and technology, noted that "Monday will be the proof that this works".

The site went live on Monday morning, but had to be disabled later in the day when it appeared it could not cope with the traffic volume. This resulted in comparisons with the electronic National Traffic Information System, which buckled under better-than-expected citizen uptake.

SARS communications GM Logan Wort says the system was reactivated this Monday morning and has since been running without fault - albeit a bit slowly at times. He says 60 000 people logged on to the site on Tuesday, of whom 5 500 filed tax returns.

Patchy global uptake

At the launch, SARS COO Edward Kieswetter added e-filing would allow taxpayers to receive their assessments earlier, especially if submitted electronically, "and if due, receive refunds much sooner".

He also said it was difficult to predict what percentage of taxpayers and tax advisors would take to e-filing. Kieswetter and Gordhan said there were cultural issues to consider.

Global uptake has been somewhat patchy, with the response particularly poor in the Netherlands, "where particular cultural dynamics are at play", Gordhan said. By contrast, uptake has been particularly good in Latin America.

"On the whole, from what my colleagues are reporting, there has been a very positive response to this particular endeavour," Gordhan added.

Kieswetter said the local uptake of Internet banking had been poor, with only 10% of bank clients using it regularly in the10 years it has been available.