An early indication that the door to tax evasion on salaries is fast closing will be the introduction of newly designed IRP5 forms currently known to most of us as the pink slips we get from our employers at the end of each tax year, showing how much tax was deducted.
Honest taxpayers may feel irritated at what looks like another onslaught on the only tax base that the South African Revenue Service (SARS) can get its hands on the regular salaried earner while the self-employed and casually employed continue to enjoy opportunities to evade the net.
But it is not unknown for companies and employees to co-operate in tax dodges around perks like entertainment, travel and accommodation allowances.
SARS is at an advanced stage of developing electronic employees' tax certificates which should fully replace the printed IRP5 tax certificates from the tax year ending February 2000.
The pink IRP5's that you receive from your employer at the end of the tax year, showing how much tax has been deducted from your salary, will disappear.
Instead your employer will send your details directly to SARS and you will receive a record from your employer to help you fill in your tax return which will probably be designed differently from one company to another.
Ron Warren, a consultant to DynamiQue Africa, PQ Consulting's payroll division, told a tax seminar in Cape Town last week that the electronic tax certificates will require employers to submit more information and provide more explanation of tax deducted and not deducted than they have to at present.
Even payments made to employees which are not taxed will have to be shown with an explanation why no tax was levied.
The computer system will also question the legitimacy of allowances granted, such as travelling allowances for desk-bound jobs.
The objective of introducing electronic IRP5s is to enable SARS to conduct assessments electronically. It is envisaged that even tax directives will be issued and effected electronically.
Warren says an electronic system has become necessary for SARS to overcome the problem of a shortage of trained staff and because SARS's existing systems are not adjusted for the year 2000.
"The system will enable SARS to track tax evasion more easily and, since it should help to broaden the tax base, tax rates should, theoretically, come down," he says.
Christo Henning, media relations manager at the South African Revenue Service says the IT12 the form which Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxpayers submit in June each year will remain in its familiar form in 1998 but it is being redesigned for the 1999 tax year.
The objective of the re-design is to simplify the form and it is expected to be an improvement on the current tax forms, he says.