Simplifying tax matters and saving tax legitimately
Every week Kloof resident, Martin Baker will unpack taxation for the man on the street.
How do you have an incorrect assessment issue by the South African Revenue Services remedied?
THE South African Revenue Services (SARS) is not infallible and do make errors.
When a taxpayer submits his income tax return containing his declaration of income and the deductions he wishes to claim, SARS can make errors but also disallow certain deductions which they believe do not conform to requirements of the Tax Act.
There is a procedure that the taxpayer has to follow in order for SARS to review his/her assessment. These procedures can either be done online on SARS efiling or at the taxpayer’s local branch office of SARS.
The first step is for the taxpayer to lodge an objection to their assessment and such objection must be lodged within 30 days of the date of the assessment and contain detailed grounds and also documentation in support of the objection.
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SARS will review this objection and either allow it in full or in part. SARS will communicate their findings in a letter to the taxpayer and state whether their objection is allowed in full or in part and they will process a revised reduced assessment accordingly.
If the taxpayer is still not happy and wishes to contest the portion of the objection disallowed he can lodge an appeal. Again the appeal must be lodged within 30 days from the date of the letter of partial disallowance.
Then SARS will again review the appeal and decide if there is any merit in the appeal and if so set aside a time and date for the appeal to be heard in the presence of the taxpayer. The appeal will be discussed and either allowed or disallowed.
If the taxpayer is still aggrieved by the outcome he can take the matter further. If the tax in question is less than R 100 000.00 the taxpayer can take the matter to a specially constituted Income Tax Board comprising various SARS officials and persons from the legal fraternity.
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If the tax in question is more that R 100 000.00 then the taxpayer can take the matter to the Income Tax Special Court for it to be heard. If this court rules against the taxpayer, the taxpayer’s last resort is to take the matter to Supreme Court of Appeals.
I have found that in most cases SARS will reject objections as being “invalid” due to a number of reasons.
These could be because the time to lodge objections has elapsed, insufficient documentation has been furnished or the objection has no merit. In the event of an initial objection being declared “invalid” SARS affords the taxpayer a further 20 days to lodge a fresh one.
Remember that you can get your assessment reviewed but it has to be within the prescribed time frame that SARS lays down and the correct procedure embodied in in the Tax Act must be followed.
Martin Baker, a Highway area resident for 50 years and educated at Kloof schools will unpack taxation for the man on the street.
“Tax has always been a subject that I have enjoyed and I enjoy assisting persons who make errors in paying too much tax to SARS,” said Martin.
“I worked for SARS for 15 years and studied at night classes after work to qualify, and became an avid reader of tax court cases and gleaned a substantial knowledge from that source which now allows me to conduct my business effectively.”
Martin Baker s.a.i.p.a.
profinn.co.za
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