SARS warns taxpayers to be on high alert – and double-check emails

Tax season 2024 kicked off this week with the rollout of auto-assessments—and the start date for filing tax returns is fast approaching on 15 July.

• Auto-assessment notices: 1 – 14 July 2024
• Individual taxpayers (non-provisional): 15 July 2024 – 21 October 2024
• Provisional taxpayers: 15 July 2024 – 20 January 2025
• Trusts: 16 September 2024 – 20 January 2025

With filing season upon us, the taxman and various tax experts have urged South Africans to be on high alert for tax scams and other dodgy practices, with criminals likely to heighten their activity over this period.

Over the past few months, SARS has highlighted several tax scams that are making the rounds. These include various types of messaging, ranging from legal threats to promises of money owing to taxpayers.

The scams that are gaining increasing visibility around tax season are those that “warn” taxpayers that they will be unable to file their tax return for the 2024 tax season until they pay an outstanding amount attached to their tax profiles.

The scammers also threaten that failing to pay the amount by a certain date will result in fines and penalties and potential “assessments” on a taxpayer’s affairs, which could result in conviction and prison time.

Other scams to be cautious of over this period include:

• Threats of SARS issuing court summonses against taxpayers
• Threats of SARS blacklisting taxpayers
• Threats of SARS issuing stop orders on accounts
• Notice of correspondence relating to solar
• Notice of outstanding amounts owed to taxpayers

Examples of these scams and more can be seen on SARS’ scams page.

According to SARS, the key counter to these kinds of scams is to be extra discerning when dealing with these kinds of messages.

The fraudulent messages usually show up via email and come from spoofed SARS addresses or email addresses that seem related but are not, in fact, coming from SARS at all. Some common formats include:

• Mentioning SARS or Tax somewhere in the address;
• Coming from a .gov.za address tied to a government department (like the DTIC or DMRE, etc);
• Addresses that have ‘refund’ or ‘customer care’ or ‘legal’ as part of the name;
• Addresses that are completely unrelated to SARS, coming from purported tax practitioners or lawyers on behalf of SARS.

SARS said that it never provides bank account numbers in its correspondence and that all legitimate tax information and communication can be accessed on eFiling and the mobiApp.

It added that if payments even need to be made, taxpayers should only use the official SARS payment channels.

To best protect themselves from such scams, SARS noted that taxpayers should be aware of the following:

• Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources.
• Beware of emails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit/debit card information, etc.).
• SARS will never request your banking details in any communication you receive via post, email, or SMS. However, for the purpose of telephonic engagement and authentication, SARS will verify your personal details. Importantly, SARS will not send you hyperlinks to other websites—even those of banks.
• Beware of false SMSes.
• SARS does not send *.htm or *.html attachments.
• SARS will never ask for your credit card details.

Rising fraud trends

Outside of the direct attempts at scamming and fraud, Nicolas Botha, Tax Team Compliance & Processing Manager at Tax Consulting SA noted a rise in cybercriminal activity targeting eFiling accounts.

“Recent reports from SARS highlight a disturbing rise in fraud attempts and breaches of eFiling profiles. These breaches can lead to identity theft, financial loss and a lengthy process to restore your good standing with the authorities,” the group said.

These threats have evolved from simple click-bait scams—as outlined above—to sophisticated and planned fraudulent activities, often targeting vulnerable individuals such as the elderly, disabled and expatriates.

“These cleverly orchestrated profile hacks can wreak havoc on a taxpayer’s financial affairs. Some involve hacking an individual’s eFiling profile, where fraudsters target taxpayers with disabled children to generate a fraudulent refund.

“This requires detailed knowledge of the taxpayer and careful planning, including updating banking account details with SARS and fraudulently submitting a tax return,” the group said.

Taxpayers are susceptible to being scammed around tax season because SARS warnings and alerts do need to be taken seriously and actioned timeously. Therefore unsuspecting victims are more likely to follow correspondence that looks legit, making them prime targets for exploitation.

Tax Consulting said this is why it is imperative that taxpayers actively protect their registered details and monitor activity on their SARS profile.

By keeping a close eye on their profiles, taxpayers will firstly be able to swiftly deal with official communication from SARS through the right channels, and be able to more easily pick up any strange of fraudulent activity.

“Regularly reviewing your SARS account activity, updating security measures, and staying informed of potential threats are essential steps to safeguard your personal and financial information,” the group said.

Read: SARS auto-assessments start rolling out – what taxpayers need to know