Month: June 2023

30 June 2023 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Interpretation Note 115 (Issue 2) – Withholding tax on interest

Source: SARS Tariffs
Legal Counsel – Interpretation and Rulings – Interpretation Notes 101–120

30 June 2023 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Interpretation Note 6 (Issue 3) – Resident – Place of effective management (Companies)

Source: SARS Tariffs
Legal Counsel – Interpretation and Rulings – Interpretation Notes 1–20

29 June 2023 – An updated ITR-DD form was published.  The changes are cosmetic and the form is now easier to complete. The form will now have a unique number at the bottom of the page to precisely distinguish and provide reference to the taxpayer. Also the Passport number field length has been increased from 16 to 18 characters.

For more information, see our Tax and Disability webpage.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: SARS Tariffs
Updated Confirmation of Disability Diagnosis (ITR-DD) form

29 June 2023 – The SARS IT security team identified the following fraudulent email addresses spamming taxpayers.

If you receive an email from one of these email addresses, please delete or ignore.  If in doubt, email phishing@sars.gov.za.

• ITR Service <tscompl@srs-za.com>
• ITR Audit <ntr@rmbgov.za>
• ITR Pay <audreq@eftr.co.za>
• Tax audit <audreq@eftr.co.za>

Source: SARS Tariffs
Beware – Fraudulent email addresses

28 June 2023 – SARS will identify taxpayers who are married in community of property and verify this information against the Department of Home Affairs.

We have developed the following FAQs for the Married in Community Spousal Assessment, also published on the Filing Season 2023 webpage:

What are the tax implications if I am married in community of property?

What does POPI act say about the communication around the ‘Married in Community Spousal Assessment’ ?

Where does the amounts found on my return come from?

What should I do if I am separated from my spouse?

What should I do if I am divorced from my spouse?

What should I do if I want to exclude my spouse from communal estate due to a legal contract?

Could this have a destabilising effect on families where the taxpayer is Married in Community of Property?

Will SARS inform the primary spouse?

Can the secondary spouse object to the ‘Married in Community Spousal Assessment’ ?

Where a match between SARS and Home Affairs is confirmed, the spouses will be linked as follows:

• If investment income is identified for a taxpayer based on third party data received (e.g. IT3(b) certificate for interested earned), the third-party data will also be prepopulated on the spouse’s return if the spouses are linked on the SARS system.
• The investment income will be apportioned accordingly and will reflect on the notice of assessment (ITA34) issued to each spouse, upon assessment.
• Note: Where applicable, the spouse who is not registered for tax may be routed for Auto Registration.

Taxpayers married in community of property may opt to exclude certain income from the communal estate. In previous tax years, one communal estate indicator displayed per applicable container/subsection of the return and if the taxpayer selected the indicator it applied to the whole income amount declared in that part of the return (e.g. total local interest or total foreign dividends)

From the 2023 year of assessment, the taxpayer can select the communal estate indicator on a transactional level (i.e. for each institution from which the income was received). This change applies to the following containers/subsections of the return:

• Local interest
• Foreign interest
• Foreign tax credits on foreign interest
• Gross foreign dividends subject to SA normal tax
• Foreign tax credits on foreign dividends
• Distributions from a Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) /Taxable Local Dividends
• Capital Gain/Loss
• Local Rental Income

Source: SARS Tariffs
Tax implications if married in community of property

28 June 2023 – The PayFast SMS scam is requesting unsuspecting taxpayers to click on a link to receive their refund. Please do not click on any links, if in doubt email phishing@sars.gov.za.

Keep an eye on our Scams examples webpage. 

Source: SARS Tariffs
Beware of the PayFast SMS scam

27 June 2023 – Kindly note that Tax Compliance Status and related services are temporarily unavailable on eFiling. Should you require an alternative solution to obtaining your Tax Compliance Pin, you are welcome to access the SARS Online Query System, available on the home Screen of the SARS website: www.sars.gov.za – Home Screen > SARS Online Query System.

The following easy steps may be followed:

• Tax Compliance Status Request
• Enter Valid ID Number and Valid Tax Reference Number
• Select Generate Form
• Captcha screen displayed
• Enter Captcha Details
• Select Validate
• Taxpayer presented with the TCR01 Form
• Complete TCR01 Form
• Select Submit
• Your request is being processed progress bar displayed
• Pop-up message – correspondence will be sent shortly
• SMS with TC PIN sent to Cell phone number of the registered taxpayer requesting status
• SMS to be forwarded to requesting user

We trust you will find this as a helpful alternative to obtaining your TCS from eFiling.

Source: SARS Tariffs
Availability of Tax Compliance Status (TCS) Services on 27 June 2023

27 June 2023 – Achieving our Vision 2024 of a smart, modern SARS with unquestionable integrity that is trusted and admired is of paramount importance. Pivotal to the delivery of our vision are our digital platforms & technology infrastructure. In order to provide clarity & certainty, make it easy for taxpayers & traders to comply with their obligations and building public trust and confidence, our technology assets have to demonstrate the highest levels of availability, robustness and security.

Pursuant to our Vision and Strategic Objectives, which include modernising our systems to provide Digital and Streamlined online services, we are hard at work ensuring that our digital platforms & technology infrastructure are available, robust & secure, by performing regular upgrades, enhancements, and maintenance.

In light of the above, SARS Systems upgrades are scheduled for Tuesday, 27 June from 22h00 to 24h00. During this time, you may experience intermittent service interruption on our Tax and Customs Digital Platform.

Stakeholders are therefore urged to submit priority Goods Declarations (bills of entry) and Road Manifests by Tuesday 27 June 2023 @ 21h00.

 

Source: SARS Tariffs
SARS systems upgrade on 27 June 2023

27 June 2023 – We are aware of the system issue experienced within our SARS branches, impacting on our service. The technical team is investigating this. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Source: SARS Tariffs
SARS branch system issues

27 June 2023 – Please note the below interim process for Customs EDI Gateway processing:

• All submitted Local Reference Numbers (LRN’s) which have not received an EDI CUSRES message within 24 hours, must be reviewed and those prioritised LRN’s submitted to the Technical Service Provider for escalation in the backlog pool;
• Please also indicate such to the respective Branch Office, for escalation;
• The Modality HUB will review the LRN and if processed advise the Port to issue a CN1 release as interim release notification – this is a system generated document, issued by a SARS branch;
• This applies to declarations in the Sea Modality only, at this time;
• It may not always indicate a release, but will indicate status and actions to be conducted in order to finalise for release; and
• Traders will still have to engage Other Government Agencies (OGA) where a release is required from an OGA.

This is an interim process and will be in place in the sea modality ONLY until the EDI Gateway has been stabilised and normal electronic processing resumes.

 

Source: SARS Tariffs
Notice to Trade – Customs Sea Modality only