Cabinet has expressed gratitude to taxpayers who have already submitted their tax returns ahead of the deadline later this month.
Tax season, which is administered by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), opened on 1 July.
“Cabinet extends its gratitude to all taxpayers who have already submitted their tax returns for the 2016/17 tax year,” said Communications Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane on Thursday.
Briefing reporters following Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting, Minister Kubayi-Ngubane said the revenue generated from income tax ensures government has the capacity to provide much-needed services and social support to millions of less fortunate South Africans.
“Cabinet reminds taxpayers that the deadline for submission is Friday, 24 November 2017 and encourages them to submit their tax returns,” the Minister said.
Tax Season is an opportunity for taxpayers to reconcile their personal income and tax-related deductions with SARS. This allows SARS to assess if there were any factors that were not accounted for over the tax year, thus ensuring that the taxpayer is compliant.
At the end of October, the revenue service announced that it had paid out over R120 billion in refunds across all tax types.
The refunds were paid out from the beginning of April of the tax season to date.
An amount of R100.6 billion in Value-Added Tax (VAT) refunds has been paid this year. This is a 5% increase compared to R95.6 billion paid last year at the same time.
For Personal Income Tax this year to date, refund payments have increased by 16% with R14. 9 billion already paid compared to R12. 8 billion paid last year at the same time.
For the year to date (1 April 2017 -10 October 2017), R6.9 billion in Corporate Income Tax (CIT) refunds has been paid, compared to R5.7 billion last year this time, marking a 21% increase. - SAnews.gov.za
