SARS warns of tax speed wobble

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 08 Jan 2008

The SA Revenue Service is bracing for a deluge of tax returns as the 31 January deadline for online submissions nears.

Spokesman Logan Wort says about 340 000 taxpayers out of the million who registered for online tax returns had submitted their forms by yesterday.

He urged taxpayers to start filing as soon as possible. "We urge people not to wait for the deadline and not to file on the last three days," he says.

Wort adds that SARS will start a media education campaign tomorrow to push taxpayers to file early and avoid the usual last-minute rush, which is expected to slow down the system substantially. "We have beefed up capacity in anticipation of the last-minute rush; we are quite aware of it. If you cannot file, then at least register, as that is bandwidth intensive."

SARS last year invested R140 million in tax-filing automation technology and greatly simplified the process in order to move away from paper. SARS commissioner Pravin Gordhan last May said the floors at many tax offices were literally creaking under the weight of archived tax returns.

He said the new system would provide taxpayers a "secure, easy and friendly mechanism to work through".

The e-filing system is part of a larger, R1.3 billion technology refresh.