SARS - FINAL NOTIFICATION OF OUTSTANDING DEBT

[Sparks]

My advice is to first confirm with them that it is legit. The case number being unknown could be the reason it won't work. Plenty scammers around.

[BusFact]

How about simply calling their helpdesk? Occasionally they actually know stuff.
Other than that I have no clue.

The convoluted process explained in post 5 was what the call centre / help desk instructed me to do.

[BusFact]

Obviously the penalties will be from a previous return. I'm not sure why everyone is running this very simple concept down when it works. ? The penalties paid over gets allocated to the oldest.

SARS actually does work when you phone them or if you go in - they have modernised most of their systems.

The issue here is that it is a final demand, which gives you 10 days to pay otherwise they can start taking any money from anyone that owes you without further notice. His next VAT return is probably only due in 6 weeks time (well at least mine was), so how can he/I submit the VAT201 and fill in the penalty section?

I'm not sure everyone is running them down, but I certainly am. If I had been given some sort of notice that an amount was due, I could have and would have followed your suggested process. I never did. They went straight to final demand, and nope I doubt I missed any notices seeing that only 2 weeks had past since the debt became due.

This final demand requires some sort of immediate action.

Now I could have maybe paid into the SARS VAT account using that ref with all the zeros that Dave suggested earlier, and then hope that SARS allocated it correctly and within 10 days. I didn't want to take a chance because I had been dealing with an imbecile that was more interested in issuing collection notices than he was in helping me pay the debt, and so I wanted to make sure the allocation was done on efiling, just like the monthly returns are done.

[BusFact]

Nope the debt was real (in my case). No arguments there. I checked on efiling. In any case payments are made to the normal VAT bank account. Its just the admin process around it that became a problem.

[Houses4Rent]

Sorry, did not realise that. Sometimes I go through the pains and call more than once asking the same question. I bet you will get a different question next time. If its the same again you can tell them its not working and that you need to speak to a supervisor. Or call again with existing case number and ask to speak to a supervisor right away.