[TAKE NOTE] 2018 tax season starts 1 July
SARS have shortened the tax season by three weeks this year.
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POLOKWANE – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) says the shortening of the 2018 tax season allows additional time for SARS, taxpayers and the tax fraternity to deal with return verifications before most taxpayers go on the December holiday break.
SARS made the announcement on Monday, 4 June and says the cut will impact all individual non-provisional taxpayers and applies to provisional taxpayers who opt to file at a branch.
Acting commissioner, Mark Kingon says provisional taxpayers who use eFiling will have until 31 January 2019 to file and the deadline for manual submissions is 21 September.
Filing your tax returns is easy if you have all the correct supporting documents.
- IRP5/IT3(a) certificate(s) from your employer or pension fund
- IT3(b) certificates for investment returns
- Financial statements, if applicable e.g. business income
- Medical aid contribution certificates and receipts
- Retirement annuity fund certificates
- Certificates you received for local interest income earned
- Logbook and other documents in support of business travel expenses
- Completed confirmation of diagnosis of disability form (ITR-DD), if applicable
- Any other relevant income and deduction information.
- Bank account details
A taxpayer does not need to submit a return if ALL the following criteria apply:
- The taxpayer’s total employment income / salary for the year of assessment (March 2017 to February 2018) before tax was no more than R350 000
- Employment income / salary for the year of assessment was received from one employer
- The taxpayer has no other form of income (e.g. car allowance, company car fringe benefit, business income, taxable interest or rental income or income from another job)
- The taxpayer does not want to claim for any additional allowable tax related deductions or rebates (e.g. medical expenses, retirement annuity contributions, travel expenses, etc.).
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