Category: General | SARS TAX TAX2024 AUTOASSESSMENTS
SARS Auto-Assessments aim to make the tax filing process smoother for approximately 3.5 million taxpayers. This covers around 50% of all Personal Income Taxpayers ("PIT") who are expected to file a tax return – almost half of the taxpayers who are expected to file a tax return will be auto assessed.
How does SARS do this?
They use information provided by your employer, banks, pension funds, medical aid, and other third-party institutions to calculate your auto-assessment.
This assessment is an estimate as they cannot be certain that all the necessary information has been received to accurately assess you. There might be some income sources and certainly expenses that could be tax deductible, of which SARS may not be aware when they complete the auto assessment. The result is that a SARS Auto-Assessments could be inaccurate, leading to unrecorded taxable incomes that could increase your tax liability, or unrecorded tax deductions that could reduce your tax liability.
Status Check:
If you want to know if you are in the auto-assessment population this year, you can check your status on the SARS Online Query System (SOQS).
By now, you, the taxpayer, should have been notified (SMS, e-mail, e-filing, or SARS MobiApp) whether SARS has processed your assessment – allowing you to review it. If all checks out – CONGRATULATIONS! You don’t have to do ANYTHING except ensure your banking details are verified and valid.
If, however, you review the assessment and find a disagreement – you have until October 21st, 2024 only, to submit the necessary corrections – ensuring that your taxes are accurate and reflect your true tax position. Making these corrections is important because it is a criminal offence to:
1) Provide SARS with incorrect information, or
2) Fail to correct auto-assessments when there are errors that entitle you to a tax refund, or
3) Pay a lower tax liability to SARS.
Ultimately the SARS auto assessment does simplify the tax filing process, however it does not relieve you from the responsibilities of errors (leading to penalties of up to 200% and in the worst-case scenario – criminal charges).
Tax due to SARS:
If your assessment shows that you owe tax to SARS, it is important to pay the amount on or before the payment due date to avoid interest. The payment due date of the amount owed to SARS is displayed on the “Notice of Assessment” (ITA34).
NB! If a debt is less than R100, the debt is rolled over to the next tax year. This means that you do not have to pay the debt to SARS immediately, but it remains as a balance on your account. You can view your account on SARS eFiling or the SARS MobiApp.
The “Take-Home” message: Review your auto assessment correctly! And if you need any assistance – contact us!
https://taxfaculty.ac.za/news/read/sars-tax-filing-season-2024-understanding-auto-assessments https://www.sars.gov.za/latest-news/check-your-auto-assessment-status-and-wait-for-the-notice/ https://www.sars.gov.za/types-of-tax/personal-income-tax/filing-season/how-does-auto-assessment-work/
