Tax Time – October Updates

The New Tax Compliance Certificate Process Made Easy

SARS has recently introduced a new Tax Compliance Status (TCS) process which will enable you to see at a glance your tax compliance status.

You need to be on eFiling and to activate your TCS. Once activated, TCS will stay active on your eFiling profile.

One of the best features of the TCS is that it will tell you why you are non-compliant. Four boxes will be shown with each box either green (compliant) or red (non-compliant). The boxes are:

• Registration Status – obviously you need to be registered and have an active status.

• Submission of Returns – are all your returns in and up to date?

• Debt – do you owe SARS money without having made a payment arrangement with SARS?

• Relevant Supporting Documents – if you have been asked to supply data to SARS ensure you have submitted it.

If you don’t agree with your TCS, you can query this on eFiling by clicking on the “Challenge Status” tab. There will also be drill-down information when your status is red, giving more detail and most importantly how to get your status into green.

There is also a facility where you can allow authorised users to see your TCS by requesting a PIN code from SARS which you can share with those parties who will need access to your TCS.

This is another excellent improvement offered by SARS.

Your Tax Deadlines for October

The Interim Employer Reconciliation (EMP501) is due on 31 October. It pays to begin this early as there have been several significant changes to PAYE this year, such as:

1. New retirement funding deductions from 1 March including provident and retirement annuity contributions are deductible as part of the monthly PAYE calculation. Note the new source codes for retirement deductions.
2. Employees over 65 are allowed to have their Medical Tax Credit expenses deducted as part of their PAYE (there’s also a new source code for this).