Operational Snippets
29 May 2014
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Posted by: Author: Emmerentia Fischer
Author: Emmerentia Fischer (SAIT Tax Executive Suite) Bank
detail verification "The fraudulent changes
to taxpayers’ banking details remain one of the biggest risks that the South
African Revenue Service (SARS) has to deal with.” This statement from SARS
resulted in SARS verifying any changes to banking details (registering,
changing or verifying) thereof before updating the taxpayer’s banking
profile. Furthermore, if any refunds are due to the taxpayer, the refunds
due will only be processed after your banking details are verified – as most of
us are aware of. Bank verification is
therefore a thorn in many tax practitioners and taxpayers’ side. Please
ensure that the relevant material requirements in the guides are adhered to in
every sense of the word. "Registering or Changing of your banking detail”
are one of the guides available in this regard. In the event of a SARS
official requesting information that are not included in the guides, please
contact the team leader and/or branch manager of the SARS branch. Single
registration – Friend or foe? One of the latest
initiatives undertaken by SARS is the implementation of the "Single
Registration”. SARS will now have a single registration of a taxpayer
across all taxes they pay and legal entities they are associated with.
What a great initiative! This initiative is in
line with the TAA and SARS strategic plan for 2014. The TAA provides the
foundation for further and future modernisation and development of tax
administration, including the development of a single registration
system. On 12 May 2014 the
Single Registration became reality (or nightmare) for tax practitioners and
taxpayers across South Africa. Due to the fact that there are always a
lot of teething problems when implementing a new system, it came as no surprise
that this is also applicable with regard to the implementation of the Single
Registration. The teething problems commences with the registration,
amendments and verification form (RAV01) and none of us know yet where and/or
when the teething problems will end.
E@zyfile
Workshops Schedules for E@zyfile
workshops are available on SARS website. SARS urges every E@zyfile user
to attend the workshop at their closest branch. This will empower the
user to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information submitted to
SARS. Public
Officer and responsibility for tax matters The accountability of
the public officer has once again came under the spotlight with the
introduction of the Single Registration. SARS wants to re-establish the
chain of trust from the boardroom to the public officer and from the public
officer to the tax practitioner. SARS’ aim is to be able to pinpoint the
accountability with regard to tax returns hence the initiative from SARS to
request the update of the registered representative of every legal
entity. Who is this registered
representative? The registered representative is regarded as a natural
person that is appointed with full rights to act on behalf of another legal
entity as it relates to all dealings or interactions with that legal
entity. The following capacities are regarded as authorised
representatives: public officers, main partner, main trustee, treasurer
or administrators. Even though the tax
practitioner is handling the legal entity’s tax affairs in terms of the
engagement letter entered into, the accountability of the accuracy and
completeness of the information submitted to SARS will be fair and square on
the shoulder of the public officer. Single
registration and Third party data Once all the new changes
on SARS’ system with regard to Single Registration have come into effect SARS’
system will be linked to i.e. Companies and Intellectual Property Commission
(CIPC). If a company is registered with the CIPC, it will automatically
be registered with SARS for company income tax purposes. As part of the Single
registration process SARS will be able to "clean up” their system to ensure the
permanent information, which includes the public officer details, agrees to the
information per CIPC.
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