The annual tax filing season for individuals or non-provisional taxpayers officially ended this past Monday, 24 October. Many taxpayers have been hoping anxiously for an extension of the tax filing deadline date.
SARS put out a notice earlier this week on the topic of annual tax filing and mentioned that various bodies have approached them to request an extension of the tax filing season deadline date. The reasoning behind such deadline extension requests have been amongst others the continued impact of load shedding on both businesses and individuals.
While the request for a tax filing deadline extension was declined for individuals or non-provisional taxpayers, SARS confirmed that provisional taxpayers have until 23 January 2023 to file a tax return.
The reasoning behind the decision not to extend the tax filing deadline for individuals was the SARS “auto assessment” strategy which is said to have been a great success with the majority of assessments being accepted as correct. Furthermore, an analysis completed by SARS indicated that there was no reason to consider an extension of the original tax filing deadline.
Here is the official SARS notice:
Dear Valued Stakeholders
The annual filing season ends today, 24 October 2024 in respect of individuals who are non-provisional taxpayers for the submission of the required ITR12’s.
As you are aware this year SARS embarked on a strategy of issuing Auto Assessments for many individual taxpayers where the information that SARS had available from third parties was sufficient to issue an assessment. Thus far most of the auto assessments have been accepted by the taxpayers as being correct with a limited number of assessments being corrected by the taxpayers.
SARS has been approached by certain Recognised Controlling bodies who represent Tax Practitioners to request an extension of the filing season closure date. The reasons given included the impact of load shedding on their ability to deal with the submission of returns. SARS has done analysis of the situation and from the information available and the filing trends for the year and given that the Provisional Taxpayers returns need to only be filed by 23 January 2023, SARS has decided that there is no reason for it to consider the extension of the current filing season.
Kind Regards,
On behalf of Mark Kingon
Head: Stakeholder Relations