With the start of the 2018 tax filing season, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) says it will do away with physical drop boxes for the submission of income tax returns and other paper documents.
This, according to SARS, is to promote the use of eFiling and enable saving on paper, printing and courier costs for both the revenue collection service and taxpayers.
According to SARS, transactions, together with the filing of income tax returns, payments and the uploading of supporting documents, can be done electronically via the eFiling system.
SARS believes this will reduce traffic in branches, which is one of its objectives for tax season 2018.
"As of 1 July 2018, SARS will also no longer provide certain printed forms at its branches, including forms used to register as a taxpayer, as a VAT vendor, as an employer, as well as forms used to apply for tax directives."
The online personal income tax system was introduced more than a decade ago. Although eFiling has gained popularity over the years, the majority of South African taxpayers still prefer the manual process of submitting personal income tax returns.
As a result, drop boxes were provided in addition to branch and electronic channels for taxpayers who chose to submit their returns and documents manually.
This year, SARS is encouraging taxpayers to use the eFiling service, and says all those switching to the digital and paperless approach will receive the support they require.
"Taxpayers will still be able to visit a SARS branch if they need an assisted filing experience. However, they are encouraged to migrate to electronic submission. Original paper documents will be handed back to the taxpayer for safekeeping."
The revenue collection service adds it has increased the size threshold of files from 2MB to 5MB, to accommodate larger files on its eFiling system.
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