The South African Revenue Service has enlisted the services of third-party debt collectors to help it collect long-outstanding debt owed by taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The collectors will focus on tax owed that is older than five years<\/strong>, where no payments or payment arrangements have been made <\/strong>with the service. Their services kicked in at the end of October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SARS said that taxpayers should “kindly note” that it is a criminal offence to submit a return without making the necessary payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It is a criminal offence for a person to wilfully and without just cause to fail or neglect to withhold and pay to SARS an amount of tax as and when required,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The taxman has taken a harsher tone in recent months as it has come under increasing pressure to collect more tax as current revenues have fallen short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The medium-term budget policy statement on Wednesday revealed that tax collections came in R56.8 billion under what was budgeted in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finance minister Enoch Godongwana revised the 2023 February Budget net tax revenue estimate from R1,787.5 billion to R1,730.4 billion, as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the under-collection, however, during the first half of the current fiscal year, SARS collected gross revenue totalling R1,016.3 billion, growing by 4.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This performance is on the back of strong gross collections from VAT, Fuel Levy and PIT- partially offset by lower gross collections from CIT as company profits remain under pressure,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its collection efforts have not gone without riling people up, though. The group sent out “threatening” messages to tax representatives last month, which left a sour taste in the mouths of many, forcing the revenue service to apologise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group had threatened to initiate legal action against tax representatives, neglecting to mention several processes and initiatives that would first have to occur to assist in becoming compliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n