Huge problems have emerged concerning the new "user-friendly" tax returns.

Many taxpayers who submitted their forms in time have been notified that their first submission was either "incomplete or incorrect".

There is no indication of what exactly the problem is.

One Pretoria taxpayer said he received a call from a Sars official earlier this week.

"The person told me there is an error on my tax return. When I asked him what it was, he couldn't say as he could not see the error on his system. He told me I had to go to my local Sars branch to sort it out otherwise I may be penalised."

He referred the official to his auditor.

It eventually transpired that his vehicle registration number had not been filled in.

His auditor said: "They expect my client to go all the way to a branch just to fill in his car's registration number. When I said I was his auditor, they told me I should complete the forms from scratch, this time remembering the importance of the registration number."

In the past, he said, an official would call him and he could give the information needed.
There are more examples in the IOL story here.

Personally, I think it is a service level problem. Officials are being too pedantic. Surely if the calling SARS staffer provides a list of what is wrong with the return and asks the taxpayer to send a note confirming the missing information, that would do the trick?

What do you think?