Income Tax Filing Season 2022

SARS has announced the following filing deadlines:

• In the case of companies, within 12 months of their financial year-ends;
• In the case of all other taxpayers (including natural persons, trusts, institutions, boards and other bodies):
  • on or before 24 October 2022 if the return is submitted electronically through the assistance of a SARS official at an office of SARS or manually or if the return does not relate to a provisional taxpayer and is submitted by using the SARS eFiling platform;
  • on or before 23 January 2023 for provisional taxpayers using eFiling;
  • where accounts are accepted by the Commissioner in terms of section 66(13A) of the Income Tax Act in respect of the whole or portion of a taxpayer’s income, which are drawn to a date after 28 February 2022 but on or before 30 September 2022, within six months from the date to which such accounts are drawn.

SARS has indicated that the official start dates of the tax filing season will be published on Friday the 3rd of June. SARS has also advised that a possibility exists that the prepopulated data reflecting within a taxpayer’s Personal Income Tax or Provisional Tax returns (requested via eFiling, the SARS Mobi application or via a SARS Branch Office) during the period between 4 June 2022 until the opening of Filing Season, will pre-populate but may not be comprehensive until the Filing Season is officially opened to the public.

A notice issued by SARS, which can be accessed here, also specifies those taxpayers which will not be required to submit an income tax return. This includes a natural person or estate of a deceased person if their gross income consists solely of one or more of the following:

• Remuneration paid or payable from one single source, which does not exceed R500,000 and employees’ tax has been deducted in respect of that remuneration;
• Interest income from a source in South Africa (excluding a tax-free investment) not exceeding:
  • R23,800 for a person younger than 65;
  • R34,500 for a person of 65 or older; or
  • R23,800 for a deceased person’s estate;
• Dividends where the individual was a non-resident throughout the year of assessment; and
• Amounts received or accrued from tax-free investments.

You will recall that, with effect from 1 December 2021, SARS was empowered to levy a late submission of return penalty where one or more (as opposed to two or more) personal income tax returns were outstanding. This penalty, which is imposed in terms of section 210 of the Tax Administration Act, may not be imposed on the persons not required to submit a tax return. Should SARS incorrectly impose a penalty in this manner, please contact the Mazars Tax Compliance Team for assistance.

03/06/2022