Wealth

What to do if you have not filed your tax returns for years

Staff Writer

 ·21 Jul 2018

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is now, along with the National Prosecuting Authority, prosecuting taxpayers who have not filed their tax returns.

If your returns are not up to date, it would be a good idea to get them up to date as soon as possible, advises Daniel Baines, author of How to Get a SARS Refund and tax consultant at Mazars.

The easiest way to file your tax returns is on Efiling. If you do not have an Efiling profile then you should go to the SARS Efiling website and set one up.

If you have an Efiling profile but you have forgotten your username and password, you will need to phone the SARS contact centre and get this sorted.

On Efiling, you must take the following steps in order to file your outstanding tax returns:

1. Click on the ‘Returns’ tab at the top of the Efiling screen;
2. Click on the ‘Returns Issued’ tab on the left of the screen;
3. This page will show returns that have been issued but not submitted;
4. It might be the case that you have not submitted a return but it is not showing on this page. You will then need to choose the year (by using the drop down list at the right hand side of this page) that you wish to request and then click ‘Request Return’. The return for that year which is outstanding will then be generated;
5. You must then click on the ‘Open’ button at the right hand side of the page to access this return. You can then proceed to complete and submit the return for this period.

If you are unsure of which returns you have submitted, you can go to the ‘Returns History’ tab; this should display all your tax returns submitted for the last while (if you have submitted your returns at a SARS branch then it may not show on this page).

If you have now submitted all your returns up to date, you may still have the issue of SARS having levied a non-compliance penalty for non-submission of returns.

To check whether a non-compliance penalty has been levied you can do the following:

1. Make sure that you have clicked the ‘Returns’ tab at the top of the screen;
2. Click on the ‘SARS Correspondence’ tab on the left;
3. Click on the ‘Request Admin Penalty SOA’ tab;
4. Select a year in which your tax returns were outstanding and then click ‘Continue’;
5. You will then need to select the period; then click ‘Submit’. Another page will appear
   and you must then click ‘Click here to view your Statement of Account’;
6. The page that opens will indicate whether you have a non-compliance penalty for that tax year selected.

If you have submitted all your tax returns up to date and do not owe SARS any income tax, you can (with good reasons) request a remission of this penalty.

To check whether you owe income tax to SARS, you can check your statement of account under the ‘SARS Correspondence’ and ‘Request Historic IT Notices’ tabs. This should also show you which returns have been submitted, Baines said.

Read: What to do if SARS does not pay out your tax refund