DURBAN - The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has on Thursday extended the provisional taxpayer season deadline from January 29, 2021, to February 15, 2021.
As the country battles the second wave of Covid-19 infections, SARS said the filing extension was implemented to protect citizens and staff and prevent the transmission of the coronavirus.
“The decision to extend the filing season was taken with due consideration of the traumatic effects being experienced by taxpayers who have lost loved ones, as well as businesses who have lost staff during the devastating second wave of Covid-19,” SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter said in a statement on Thursday.
Taxpayers who have received auto-assessment notices last year but did not yet accept the auto-assessments, or edited and filed a return in response to the notice, should use the extension period to do so, Kieswetter explained.
Kieswetter said that failure to comply with legal obligations, and to the deadline of February 15, could result in administrative penalties being levied upon the transgressor.
“While SARS believes that most taxpayers and traders comply voluntarily and want to do the right thing, we also have measures we can use to enforce compliance. However, such enforcement always remains a last resort,” said Kieswetter, adding that taxpayers should make use of the SARS MobiApp.
In addition to the extension of tax season, the government has also extended the period for driving licence card renewals to prevent overcrowding at licensing offices around the country.
After making an amendment to the government gazette, the Department of Transport gave motorists who were due for a renewal until August 31, 2021, to renew their licences.
“Licence discs were not included. The extension was created to open up space for all types of licence renewals, updates and makes at DLTCs responding to the backlog created by the lockdown period,” the department said in a statement in mid-January.
ANA