The 2024 Tax Season kicked off on Monday, and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has already paid R10 billion in tax refunds. The average payout to the 1.6 million early-bird taxpayers amounted to R5 900.
In total, around 5.5 million taxpayers were assessed either through an auto assessment or the submission of tax returns on Monday.
The bulk, more than five million, formed part of SARS’s auto assessment drive.
Commissioner Edward Kieswetter says the revenue service anticipates issuing around eight million tax assessments for individual taxpayers during the current filing season.
This does not include the filing of tax returns from prior years that taxpayers may still do to become complaint.
Kieswetter says SARS received 150 million third-party data records.
The use of artificial intelligence and enhanced machine learning algorithms enables it to automatically assess a larger number of taxpayers, pre-populate more returns, and improve the integrity of taxpayer declarations.
Fraud detection
All returns filed during the first day had been assessed by the end of the day – with around 70% assessed within five seconds of being received. This resulted in potential refunds of R17 billion.
Although R10 billion has already been paid and another R4 million is on its way to taxpayers, there is a delay with some due to outstanding tax debt or the need for SARS to complete its verification process to ensure that only valid refunds are paid out.
Increased investment in tax fraud detection capabilities and the expanded use of trusted third-party data providers prevented the outflow of R100 billion in fraudulent personal income tax (PIT) and value-added tax (Vat) claims last year alone.
Kieswetter has again warned taxpayers against scamsters who, pretending to be SARS officials, ask taxpayers for personal information such as credit card or banking details with the lure of potential refunds.
“SARS will never ask taxpayers for their credit card details,” he emphasised during a media briefing in Cape Town. SARS will also never send a taxpayer a hyperlink to another website or a bank.
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