Global Courant
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is preparing its systems for the upcoming 2023 tax season, which will start in July 2023.
The IRS has issued two related alerts, including a system update for the eFiling service and a warning about prefilling third-party data.
On the former, SARS said it is continuing with its Vision 2024 strategy to build a “smart, modern SARS with unquestionable integrity.”
To achieve this, it must continue to develop its digital platforms and technological infrastructure.
“To provide clarity and certainty, make it easy for taxpayers and traders to meet their obligations and build public trust, our technology assets must demonstrate the highest levels of availability, robustness and security,” it said. .
“We are working hard to ensure that our digital platforms and technology infrastructure are available, robust and secure through regular upgrades, enhancements and maintenance.”
It said it would upgrade its eFiling systems between 6 and 10 p.m. on Friday, June 2, warning taxpayers that its systems would be disrupted “intermittently”.
Fill in data in advance
SARS said that in preparation for the opening of income tax filing season, personal income and provisional income taxpayers will see their profiles updated with third-party information.
From June 2, 2023, until the opening of the July filing season, the pre-populated data reflecting income tax or provisional tax returns filed through eFiling, the SARS Mobi application or through a SARS affiliate during this period, will prepopulate, it said.
However, the service cautioned that the data presented may not be complete until the filing season officially opens to the public.
Automatic assessments
As in previous years, South African taxpayers can expect automatic assessments to play a central role in tax season this year.
Automatic assessments are a faster way for SARS to process South Africans’ tax affairs with simpler tax matters.
For the 2022 tax season, if taxpayers agreed to their automatic assessments, there was no need to “accept” the assessment. SARS has not yet announced any changes to this process for the 2023 tax year, but more information could be shared about the upcoming tax season as it approaches.
With automatic assessments, if a refund is due to the taxpayer, the refund will follow automatically. If you owe money to SARS, pay as soon as possible to avoid interest and penalties.
SARS said normal tax returns can also be filed if taxpayers disagree with the automatic assessment. These entries would then correct any incorrect information or add information that was not included.
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