TAX Submissions and Verifications

[MTSCFin]

Is anyone, Practitioners/Accountants or the public having issues with SARS and an increase in the number of Verifications this year?

[Christel]

Yes... VAT verifications on every VAT return for our clients... and they take their time... after an upload of documents they have 35 days to sort out the verification... these days we find that they wait until day number 35, then suddenly have queries.. .then we have to upload more docs, and then they have another 35 days to verify the return. Just remember that you can request for the interest to be paid out to you on the VAT refund that is being withhold.

We have also heard that SARS is currently 8 weeks behind in completing the VAT verifications... We have lodged a formal complaint about this at the Ombudsman and we might take it to the newspapers as well. We have also started with a class action about diesel rebate audits of farmers...

SARS has recently changed their policy that they now hold back VAT refunds if any other entity in the group has outstanding income tax returns / or PAYE returns. And they have also recently started to clear the income tax and PAYE account by transferring VAT refunds ....

[Paul T]

I was going to post about this too but I see that is has already been done - thanks Christel for your response - I was also considering the Ombud as this is a clear service issue (not sticking to the timelines), and not a substantive one (which the Ombud is not mandated to handle). For what it is worth, I have today escalated telephonically with SARS (21 working days for them to get back on that).

[MTSCFin]

Every SINGLE Income Tax return that we submit is being verified??

We have an outstanding VAT audit for longer than 8 weeks??

We lodged a compliant at the OMBUD for the horrendous handling of a Dispute almost 4 weeks ago, no response

[Dave A]

It seems SARS is doing everything it can to slow down payment of refunds.

[SilverNodashi]

So, is it normal for a VAT submission, for Dec2015/Jan2016 to only be paid out two weeks ago?

[Justloadit]

The time is certainly long. What I have found is that if it is the first time one is claiming a credit VAT from SARs, then SARs will definitely request supporting documentation to substantiate the claim.
What I have found in the past, is that SARs does not contact you if they request further documentation, you have to periodically check the web to see if there is a change in the status.

From my experience this year, is that if the credit is a small amount, less than a few K, then payment is made at the end of the month. When larger amounts are claimed, SARs will request a transaction report for the respective period, and will request random copies of claimed invoices. So make sure that you have not claimed VAT for things such as petrol, staff emoluments and other non claimable items.

It has taken up to 3 months to get my VAT back, but I have also been pleasantly surprised when the VAT was paid at the end of the month of application. Being a manufacturer, on large orders, I regularly claim VAT when purchasing raw materials because of the manufacturing time, then pay VAT on the months that I invoice the finished goods. It does cause havoc with cash flows.

[Christel]

Everything is "normal" when it comes to SARS...