Sage to meet with Sars over accounting software issues

Software company Sage is in “active discussions” with the South African Revenue Service (Sars) to understand how taxpayers can mitigate any impact of late VAT filing for November 2020 and December 2020, “where this was due to events beyond their reasonable control”.

Owners of Small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) got anxious and angry when they were unable to log onto Sage Business Cloud Accounting since Monday last week.

Sars said on Friday that it was not a Sars issue and that taxpayers who were affected would be required to approach Sars for a remission of the penalty and submit the relevant motivation using the normal process in this regard, but that the waiving of interest would not be considered.

ALSO READ: Sage cloud accounting offline for entire week as SMMEs wait to file returns

“I know what a busy time it is, how inconvenient this is. We are doing everything we can to fix this. Over the weekend, many customers have been successfully using the service and getting ready for the tax filing deadlines this week.

“However, as the service became busier on Monday, we can see that some people are still experiencing delays during peak times. We are in active discussions with Sars,” Pieter Bensch, executive-vice president for Sage in Africa and the Middle East, said.

Bensch explained that the disruption stemmed from an upgrade to the Sage Business Cloud Accounting infrastructure that was done last week.

“Unfortunately, when the system was brought back online, we experienced an unexpected error. Since then, we’ve been working around the clock with our dedicated service providers and vendors to reach a full resolution.”

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