Do you need to submit an income tax return to SARS?

The new Tax Season starts on 1 July and taxpayers can submit their 2016 annual Income Tax Return (ITR12) to the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

There is certain criteria which needs to be met before you are required to submit an income tax return – to make sure you don’t have to submit a return, please review the following:

You do not need to submit a return if ALL the criteria below applies to you:

• Your total employment income / salary for the year (March 2015 to February 2016) before tax was not more than R350 000
• You only received employment income / salary for the full year of assessment (March 2015 to February 2016) from one employer
• You have no other form of income (e.g. car allowance, business income, taxable interest or rental income or income from another job)
• You do not want to claim for any additional allowable tax related deductions (e.g. medical expenses, retirement annuity contributions, travel expenses, etc.).

Please beware of scams – SARS will never request your banking or personal details in any correspondence that you receive via post, email of SMS. SARS will not send you hyperlinks to other websites – if you are unsure of whether you are “due any refunds” rather check with our tax department on your tax status.

The deadline for Non-provisional taxpayers to submit their ITR12’s is Friday 25 November 2016 while Provisional taxpayers have until 31 January 2017.

Our Tax department includes 2 registered SAIT Tax Practitioners who deliver highly specialised income tax services to all our clients with the personal attention that you deserve. We pride ourselves on our quick turnaround and assistance in all areas of your tax compliance and service needs. In today’s onerous legislative environment with the ever changing tax legislation and increased risks associated with errors or non-compliance, you can’t afford not to rely on our expertise and experience to assist you!