[Opinion] UUGGGHHHHH...SARS

[BusNavig8]

I am so so so angry with SARS! Tomorrow I have an appointment with the consultant and boy are they going to hear from me in spades!

I have to email them things they have just emailed me (same person)

I have to copy and paste my practice number of an email and forward it again to them because clearly they cant read or forgot their glasses at home

I have to see the consultant, work not done, escalate at call centre, they cant help, go see consultant again. And it goes on and on and on.

They give me their tax handbook and ask me to find the section of the act that Im referring to for them!

They change the rules minute by minute, just forget the tax act.

Im so sick of having to report SARS to the Monitoring office due to lack of service

SARS at your service...whatever

[Dave A]

Somehow I ended up on the mailing list of the SA Institute of Tax Practitioners*. This received today:

7 February 2012

Call for comment: SARS Operational Issues

The Tax Technical Executive of the Institute will be meeting with SARS on 21 February 2012 to address operational issues experienced by practitioners.

You have the opportunity to escalate operational issues to the Institute to address with SARS.

Kindly use the official template and forward to *email address removed* by 14 February 2012. The template can be downloaded here.

Yours truly,

The South African Institute of Tax Practitioners

Might be more productive in the long run to raise your experience with them. I'll pm the link to the template and email address if you're interested.

*Just for the sake of clarity, I am not a tax practitioner

[BusNavig8]

Well I got the confrontational consultant which I knew I would. I always get her. Twice she went into conflict with me over the Act and the way the system handles an event (one of each). Twice she had to apologize. But of course it ended with "well they must have changed". I didn't say anything. I just needed the job done. The 'Mantax Way' was more important to me actually.

[Dave A]

Well I got the confrontational consultant which I knew I would. I always get her.

So it must be true - you get what you expect most of the time

[Citizen X]

Can anyone provide me with the email address of SARS head office?

[BusNavig8]

What division, what are you needing it for? There are lots of H/O divisions.

[BusNavig8]

SARS de registered one of my clients cc's due to the fact that it was a non trading cc - no income but held assets (property). It was not noted on the system who did this, so we cannot restore the CC at CIPC and will now in all probability need a court order for restitution of the CC.

[Citizen X]

I need the division that deals with cc tax related matters please

[Dave A]

It was not noted on the system who did this, so we cannot restore the CC at CIPC and will now in all probability need a court order for restitution of the CC.

Have you tried reinstatement via the CIPC website lately? Apparently you can now do it online at the website. Last month I got a company reinstated that hadn't paid renewals since the renewal fee system was introduced without much fuss at all.

Much better than it used to be apparently. Just cost an arm and a leg

(It was actually a very simiar situation to the one you're giving - essentially a property holding company).

[BusNavig8]

The situation (I wish !) is not the same as the CC was not de-registered due to the non payment of annual fees but by the instruction of one Govt body to another. The decision needs to be over ruled and I cant gets SARS to issue an instruction to reinstate or CIPC to investigate the source of the person who issued the instructio, so it will have to go to court to be reinstated. (The same rules apply to remove a member from a CC where the existing member wont sign off or you cant find them )

[BusNavig8]

I refer to the query logged


Kindly be advised that the corporation’s status ...(deleted for privacy reasons)
We apologise for the jargon used in the previous correspondence and this has also been escalated to management.

The case will now be closed from the SSMO's side.

Thats what you do if SARS email you their own internal jargon!

[BusNavig8]

Which Part - Operational Policy or a problem with the tax assessment of a CC

Response to division at SARS!

[Citizen X]

problem with tax assessment cc, I would really appreciate a direct person's email address

[BusNavig8]

problem with tax assessment cc, I would really appreciate a direct person's email address

SARS service charter does not work in this manner, if the branch(either walk in or call centre) does not resolve a query this is the procedure to follow:

Requirements for a valid complaint:

" A reference number issued by the Contact Centre/Branch Office should always be quoted on your complaint
" If you used the Branch Office, proof of submission of your query to the Branch Office must be attached to your complaint
" The SARS turnaround time must have lapsed prior to approaching the SSMO

Should your correspondence not meet the above requirements, your issue will not be attended to. You should then contact the SARS Contact Centre. The contact details can be found below:
" Call our SARS Contact Centre on 0800 00 7277 (0800 00 SARS)
" International Callers may contact our Contact Centre on +27 11 602 2093
" Email or fax one of our dedicated four contact centres:
" Northern South Africa please use: Contact.north@sars.gov.za and fax 0126706880
" Central South Africa please use: Contact.central@sars.gov.za and fax 0102085005
" Eastern South Africa please use: Contact.east@sars.gov.za and fax 0313286018
" Southern South Africa please use: Contact.south@sars.gov.za and fax 0214138905
" National eFiling email address for specific eFiling enquiries: eFilingAssist@sars.gov.za

The SSMO email address if the procedure has been followed is ssmo@sars.gov.za and the query will be resolved. - See my comments of the other day - they were from the SSMO office. And that was just from internal jargon used. I didnt need a case number for that. But you would need to follow the complaint as outlined above.