Tag: South African Revenue Service (SARS)

Treasury has proposed certain amendments to the Income Tax Act relating to the tax treatment of cryptocurrencies in the recently issued Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (draft TLAB).

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has created some nervousness in the South African tax base by embarking on an initiative to criminally prosecute taxpayers who fail to submit their tax returns. Whilst the threat of a criminal record and a fine ought to serve as sufficient incentive to submit one’s return, it is perhaps worth pointing out that submission of returns also gives taxpayers access to the Voluntary disclosure Programme (VDP), which affords acquittal from far more serious criminal sanctions.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) released a Service Charter earlier this week. The Service Charter outlines taxpayers’ rights and responsibilities as well as service standards taxpayers can expect from SARS. Acting SARS commissioner Mark Kingon urged South African taxpayers to become familiar with the document.

SARS replaced the Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) system with the enhanced Tax Compliance Status (TCS) system on eFiling in April 2016. The new TCS system is aimed at improving tax compliance as taxpayers can better manage their TCS and remedy any non-compliance through the 'My Compliance Profile' (MCP) function on eFiling.

A taxpayer who is subject to a tax audit has certain rights to engage with SARS, which includes the right to be advised of the audit findings, and, where there are any potential adjustments of material nature, the taxpayer has 21 business days to respond in writing to the outcome of the audit.

While SARS confirms that it is not obligatory for South African residents travelling abroad to declare their personal effects when leaving the country, we encourage frequent travellers to do so to avoid any inconvenience or confusion.

The obligation of SARS to collect tax and taxpayers' rights are often at odds with each other. To address this issue, the Budget 2018 proposes to reconcile taxpayers' constitutional rights with SARS' constitutional obligations by including a provision in the Tax Administration Act stipulating that SARS must inform the taxpayer at commencement of the audit when the information will be audited.

The two programmes, the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) created by and falling under SARS, and the Youth Empowerment Service (YES) by the Department of Trade and Industry, are designed to work together and to compliment one-another.

On 6 April 2018, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced that it will continue to apply normal income tax rules to cryptocurrencies and will expect affected taxpayers to declare cryptocurrency gains or losses as part of their taxable income.

In South Africa, as with most other countries around the world, there is no guidance and regulation regarding cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The Budget Review 2018 (Budget) proposes that the income tax and value-added tax (VAT) legislation be amended to deal with cryptocurrencies, which pose a risk to the South African tax system. Given the current Budget deficit, the imposition of taxes on cryptocurrencies would assist the South African Revenue Service (SARS) with increasing its revenue collection going forward.