A total of 5.32 million income tax returns were submitted during the 2014 tax season, the SA Revenue Service (Sars) said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Of that 4.05m taxpayers (94.49 percent) submitted their tax returns on time, which was 10.14 percent higher than the 3.69m last year, Sars said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene thanked taxpayers for paying their tax.<\/p>\n
“Their continued commitment to the building of a more prosperous South Africa has been one of the cornerstones of our democracy over the past 20 years,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“The tax system is a key part of the foundation of a country’s public finances.”<\/p>\n
Tax returns had to be submitted by November 21.<\/p>\n
Sars said the number of returns submitted for 2014 was lower than last year’s 6.09m, but this was due to the introduction of a higher submission threshold.<\/p>\n
The new threshold meant taxpayers who earned below R250,000 a year from one employer, with no refund claims on their tax returns, did not have to submit.<\/p>\n
However, 207,525 people who were not required to do so submitted their tax returns, compared to 792,928 last year.<\/p>\n
Sars said of the 5.32m returns submitted 4.26m were returns for the 2014 tax year while 1.02m people submitted outstanding returns from last year.<\/p>\n
A total of 48,586 returns were submitted by trusts.<\/p>\n
The 1.02m outstanding tax returns from the previous year were 34 percent lower than the 1.55m outstanding in 2013.<\/p>\n
“This is a very encouraging indicator that the administrative penalties Sars imposes for outstanding returns are having the desired effect of improving compliance levels.”<\/p>\n
Defaulting taxpayers paid Sars a total of R436m in penalties.<\/p>\n
A total of 2.1m people received tax refunds totalling R15.2 billion.<\/p>\n