[imagesource:  Ziphozonke Lushaba/African News Agency]

This year, I was one of those taxpayers who received a SARS auto-assessment.

The SMS pinged (or buzzed, as my phone is always on silent because I’m not a psychopath), I saw the amount SARS had calculated it owed me, and I immediately knew it was well short of what I should be refunded.

Clearly, I was not alone on that front, because SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter has stated that only half of the 1,3 million taxpayers accepted their auto-assessments without making edits.

I made minor edits, and the amount I received back was far more than what the original SMS had stated.

Editing your tax return does come with the worry of making an error, and if a planned change to tax legislation in South Africa is passed, that error could land you in jail for up to two years.

One of the proposed amendments in the 2020 Draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill (TALAB) is a particular worry, and this has been pointed out by multiple tax practitioners.

Whereas previous wording had included the word “wilfully” in legislation, meaning you intentionally and knowingly broke the law, the amendment removes that, and would thus criminalise a simple mistake.

Kyle Fyfe, a senior associate of Werksmans Attorneys, told Business Insider SA that “this is a concerning erosion of the safeguards against criminalising inadvertent mistakes by taxpayers.”

He pointed out errors like supporting documents being misplaced, or clerical errors, late payments of VAT or PAYE by businesses, or underpayments of VAT or PAYE by individuals or businesses who have made an error in calculation.

Yet more reason to call on the help of certified tax professionals to handle your affairs.

Marc Sevitz of TaxTim SA spoke with CapeTalk about the same proposed amendment:

“This is scary for a lot of people. People who aren’t familiar with filing their returns are [fearful] of making a mistake…

What these draft changes are trying to do is to… say, ‘If you’ve made a mistake, we’re going to look at that mistake and [whether] you potentially tried to lie and we’re going to penalise you on that’…

For SARS to penalise that and not really look at it as just a mistake doesn’t really sit well. Taxpayers would be affected.”

The amendments have been submitted for public comment, which closed on August 31. There is still a long way to go before the amendments become law, but it’s worrying, nonetheless.

To take a weight off your shoulders, and to ensure you do everything by the book, in order to avoid the risk of the book being thrown at you, we recommend Galbraith | Rushby, who offer tax compliance and advisory services to individuals and businesses.

Nobody has time for SARS coming after them.

[sources:businsidersa&capetalk]