Filing season for taxpayers who have been making use of e-Filing will start on 01 July or 01 August 2019 depending on your tax classification.
Non-provisional taxpayers who use e-Filing to submit their returns will be able to do so from 01 August however if you use e-Filing as your means of processing returns you may submit your return as from 01 July and will have time until 4 December to do so. Non-provisional taxpayers are individuals who do not have additional income such as interest and rental income.
The filing season for provisional taxpayers, people with multiple employers and different income streams, starts on 1 July, but they will again have until the end of January 2020 to file their returns.
SARS increased the income threshold for the mandatory submission of income tax returns to R500,000 (previously R350,000) and individuals with simple tax affairs below this new threshold are not obliged to file a return.
The criteria to follow in determining whether to submit a return is as follows:
- You must receive income from one employer only.
- You must have no other form of income, such as a car allowance, business income, taxable income or money made from renting.
- You must have no additional deductible allowances, such as medical expenses, travel expenses or retirement annuities.
To further reduce unnecessary trips to SARS branches, taxpayers who are not required to file a return will receive a simulated outcome from SARS as if they had filed a return. The taxpayer can accept this outcome or update the return and file.
If you don’t agree with the outcome of the audit/verification, you can dispute the outcome. To dispute the outcome of your assessment, a specific process must be followed.
As a taxpayer you have the right to lodge an appeal where your objection hasn’t been allowed in full or in part. The appeal must be lodged within 30 business days from the date the objection was disallowed or partially allowed. There is where the services of a professional accounting firm comes in handy.
This article is provided for information only and does not constitute the provision of professional advice of any kind.