The commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (Sars), Edward Kieswetter, says Sars is committed to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s strategy for fiscal consolidation over the medium term through improved administration and taxpayer compliance.
“A well-functioning tax administration within a growing economy is the most sustainable path towards improving the country’s fiscal integrity,” said Kieswetter, after the minister delivered his Budget speech in Parliament yesterday.
Kieswetter said that to maintain tax revenues at the current level or to increase them, it is essential to improve fiscal integrity, in particular to reduce debt service costs. Improved taxpayer and trader compliance underpin fiscal sustainability and consolidation.
He said taxpayers must meet their obligations to register, file and pay their tax. “Those who fail to comply place an unfair burden on honest, compliant taxpayers and must face the consequences of breaking the law.”
The Sars Strategic Intent programme aims to promote voluntary compliance and fiscal citizenship through implementing key strategic objectives:
• providing clarity and certainty about tax and customs obligations
• making it easy and simple for taxpayers and traders to comply with their tax obligations
• making it hard and costly for those who wilfully do not comply.
When economic growth is strained, Sars has to work harder to ensure that all taxpayers remain compliant and up to date with their taxes, Kieswetter said.
“The focused Compliance Programme is the centrepiece of our active engagement with taxpayers and traders. This work continues to complement tax revenues, which would otherwise be much lower under these economic conditions,” he said.
The largest contributors to the Compliance Programme year to date are:
• initiatives in the large business and international segment, which yielded R17.2 billion, up by R15.7bn from the previous year
• following up with defaulting taxpayers to collect outstanding taxes, which amounted to R70.3bn, up 16.7%.
Kieswetter said that, for the remainder of the fiscal year ending March 31, Sars had put in place measures to reach the revised estimate for revenue collection of R1 731.4bn announced by the minister yesterday.
February is a high-collection month, as companies are due to submit and pay their provisional tax returns. Apart from normal revenue flows, many taxpayers seek to regularise their tax affairs with Sars before the end of the accounting period.
BUSINESS REPORT