TAX

Accountancy SA,  Oct 2005  

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SAIGA'S NATIONALTAX COMMITTEE

The National Tax Committee has made numerous submissions to SARS and National Treasury this year on various tax issues and had its quarterly meeting on 27 July 2005. The various submissions and the minutes of the meeting are available on the Tax Page of the SAICA website.

RESOLVING SARS OPERATIONAL PROBLEMS

In terms of the new SARS structure, there are three zones covering the area of South Africa and each zone has a general manager, with various regional office managers (ROMs).

Taxpayers should initially direct operational problems through the Call Centres. If the matter is not resolved within a reasonable time (21 days), it should be referred to the Branch Manager concerned. If the matter is still not resolved, the taxpayer should write to the relevant ROM including a short explanation of the problem, their tax reference number and the SARS office concerned. The names and email addresses of the ROMs are available on the Tax Page of the SAICA website.

If the matter is still not resolved after referring it to the ROM, it should be referred to the SARS Service Monitoring Office issmo(5>sars.gov.za). SAICA will assist members in resolving operational problems that remain unresolved after following the normal channels, as set out above. Please email SAICA (standards@saica.co.za) if you require assistance in this regard.

SAICA continues to meet with SARS at all levels to address operational issues. SARS has formalised the process of interacting with stakeholders to ensure that these interactions are systematic and more effective. The proposed interaction structure is available on the Tax Page of the SAICA website.

REGISTRATION OF TAX PRACTITIONERS

The following briefing note on tax practitioner registration was received from SARS on 30 June 2005:

"Today, 30 June, marks the end of the process for the registration of tax practitioners. Over the last 2 months SARS has received over 10 000 applications from practitioners who are required to register in terms of section 67A of the Income Tax Act. Applications that were completed electronically have been processed and registration numbers have already been issued. SARS is still in the process of capturing manual applications and will notify those tax practitioners of their registration numbers in due course. Practitioners who have submitted their registration forms but have not yet received a registration number should not be concerned."

ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS TO SARS

There has been some confusion as to whether electronic transfers can still be made to SARS if the transferor is not using the SARS e-filing facility. SAICA has confirmed with SARS that electronic transfers may be made irrespective of whether the transferor is using e-filing.

SARS has advised the following: "Nothing has changed in terms of electronic banking other than the fact that the bank would put the necessary validations in place to ensure that every paymen t to SARS is correctly referenced. For SARS the e-filing service is still our preferred method of receiving payments. "

NEW DOUBLE TAX AGREEMENT (DTA) WITH SWAZILAND

A new DTA has been signed between South Africa and Swaziland. The DTA and the Protocol thereto were published in Government Gazette No. 27637, dated 1 June 2005. The DTA came into effect on 8 February 2005 and the provisions of the DTA apply to taxes withheld at source, in respect of amounts paid or credited on or after 10 March 2005 and other taxes, in respect of years of assessment beginning on or after 8 February 2005.

WITHHOLDING OF EMPLOYEES' TAX FROM LABOUR-ONLY SUB-CONTRACTORS

SARS has issued a directive to Master Builders South Africa that permits the withholding of 6% employees' tax at 6%, subject to certain conditions. The directive is available on the Tax Page of the SAICA website.

WHAT'S NEW AT SARS?

Interpretation Note 33 has been released and can be accessed on the SARS website. The Interpretation Note deals with circumstances in which a company may forfeit the right to carry forward its assessed loss where it has not traded during a year of assessment, or has traded but derived no income from trade.

Copyright South African Institute of Chartered Accountants Oct 2005
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