Keep us posted:
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) wants to make you responsible to inform it of any changes in your personal details. In a guide to the Budget Tax Proposals, SARS says the failure of individuals to inform it of changes in their personal details, particularly their postal addresses, creates an administrative burden for SARS. It is therefore proposing that taxpayers be required to inform SARS of any such changes.
Easy does it:
SARS plans to further simplify the individual tax returns it issues. This year, basic salary earners will receive a simplified return, while those earning other forms of passive income - for example, interest from investments - will be sent a return that provides for this kind of income.
Red faces:
There was embarrassment at the National Treasury over a blips in the numbers. Personal Finance thought it had caught out Finance Minister Trevor Manuel bluffing us about tax reductions. The problem, however, lay in official documents mixing up last year's and the previous year's tax tables, creating the wrong impression. A correction is to be issued.
Stopped:
Penalties are proposed for senior executives who are given shares in place of income to avoid tax. However, low-income employees will win with proposed legislation to allow for the tax-free transfer of shares to employees, although it is likely to be capped at a maximum income amount.
Not quite true:
Despite Trevor Manuel's claims that he has adjusted tax tables to take account of inflation, this is not true for the taxpayers in the top bracket.
Keeping tabs on you:
Information will be cross-referenced from third parties to reduce information SARS requests from individual taxpayers. The taxman also plans to extend reporting requirements to other parties, such as laywers and estate agents, who will have to provide information about your transactions to SARS.
Clarity:
SARS has been reviewing the possibility of introducing formal advance rulings so that you know the tax implications of complex transactions, in advance.
Extension:
Moratoria on the non-taxation of foreign pensions paid to South African residents will extend at least until the current revision of the taxation of retirement funds is finalised, and on the non-payment of capital gains tax on retirement savings.