{"id":321707,"date":"2019-06-05T18:00:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=321707"},"modified":"2019-06-07T10:20:52","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T08:20:52","slug":"sars-has-changed-the-rules-for-tax-returns-in-south-africa-heres-3-other-things-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/321707\/sars-has-changed-the-rules-for-tax-returns-in-south-africa-heres-3-other-things-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"SARS has changed the rules for tax returns in South Africa \u2013 here\u2019s 3 other things you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced a number of changes ahead of the start of the 2019 tax season.<\/p>\n<p>Arguably the biggest change made is that taxpayers who earn below R500,000 are no longer required to submit returns.<\/p>\n<p>This is an increase from the previous threshold of R350,000. However, SARS said that taxpayers will need to meet all of the following criteria to qualify:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Their total employment income for the year before tax is not more than R500,000<\/li>\n<li>They only receive employment income from one employer for the full tax year.<\/li>\n<li>They have no other form of income (e.g. car allowance, business income, and rental income, taxable interest or income from another job)<\/li>\n<li>They don\u2019t have any additional allowable tax-related deductions to claim (e.g. medical expenses, retirement annuity contributions and travel expenses).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Simulated outcomes and customised notices\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To further reduce unnecessary trips to Sars branches, the revenue collector said that taxpayers who are not required to file a return will receive a simulated outcome from SARS as if they had filed a return.<\/p>\n<p>The taxpayer can accept this outcome or update the return and file.<\/p>\n<p>SARS said that it will begin issuing &#8216;customised notices&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>These notices will indicate the\u00a0specific documents required in the event of an audit or verification and a simulated outcome issued before a taxpayer has filed, it said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Revamped app<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SARS said that it has revamped its MobiApp which will make it even easier than before to use a smartphone to file a simple income tax return.<\/p>\n<p>The revamped app includes the following new features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Simpler navigation;<\/li>\n<li>The introduction of biometric authentication;<\/li>\n<li>A one-time pin as an added security feature;<\/li>\n<li>The ability to reset username and password;<\/li>\n<li>Security questions;<\/li>\n<li>The scanning and uploading of supporting documents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Dates to know<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SARS said that tax Season 2019 starts on 1 August for taxpayers who file their income tax returns at a SARS branch.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However, taxpayers who go to a SARS branch will be encouraged to register as users of eFiling and the MobiApp,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Once they are registered for these two online channels our staff will demonstrate how to use these online channels to file a simple income tax return. SARS branches will provide wi-fi for taxpayers to use eFiling or the MobiApp in our branches.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Taxpayers who are registered for eFiling or have access to the MobiApp can file their income tax returns from 1 July via these channels.<\/p>\n<p>The closing dates for Tax Season are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>31 October 2019 for branch filing.<\/li>\n<li>4 December 2019 for non-provisional taxpayers who use eFiling and the MobiApp.<\/li>\n<li>31 January 2020 for provisional taxpayers who use eFiling.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/321339\/if-you-earn-less-than-r500000-you-no-longer-have-to-submit-tax-returns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">If you earn less than R500,000 you no longer have to submit tax returns<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced a number of changes ahead of the start of the 2019 tax season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":80497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26,3246],"class_list":["post-321707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline","tag-sars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321707"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322057,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321707\/revisions\/322057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}