Hi all,

Does anybody have any experience with late/non-submission penalties relating to provisional tax?

Long story short: We messed up this year with provisional tax. We were a month late on submission because things were insanely busy and it just got away from us. When we submitted our returns we factored in what I thought was the applicable penalty and interest (10% of the provisional tax payment + 10.5% interest).
Now a few months down the line when submitting my ITR12, I get my assessment back and see that SARS has knocked me with a pretty hefty penalty for late/non-submission of provisional tax returns. I can't for the life of me understand why it's so high. (It's roughly 75% of my 2nd provisional tax payment - the one which was late and around 25% of my total tax payable for the year.) In addition, they don't seem to have considered the fact that we already paid a penalty earlier.

Does anybody have some information for me that can explain why I'm being charged so much, or whether it's possibly a mistake on their behalf?

I've lodged a notice of objection in the mean time, requesting that they clarify, but would like to know if I have a leg to stand on when they actually do get back to me.

Thanks in advance!

Mark