Business Tax Amnesty
22 May 2006
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) on Wednesday, 17 May 2006 met
executive members of the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) in
Brooklyn, Pretoria in order to discuss the implementation of draft legislation
around the Small Business Tax Amnesty.
The meeting also discussed a programme of co-operation between the industry
and SARS.
On 12 May this year SARS and the National Treasury released the Small
Business Tax Amnesty and Amendment of Taxation Laws Bill for public comment.
The deadline for public submissions or comment on the draft legislation is 5
June 2006.
The Portfolio Committee on Finance will conduct public hearings on the Bill
from 2 June 2006.
The meeting with SANTACO acknowledged the challenges small business owners
may face to regularise their affairs and to become part of a formalised
business environment as a result of past non-compliance with tax and revenue
laws. The meeting further acknowledged that many small businesses, particularly
in the taxi industry, were historically marginalised, were excluded from the
economic mainstream, operated informally and remained outside the tax
system.
SANTACO representatives expressed their commitment to encourage tax
compliance and highlighted the need for further tax education and assistance
during the amnesty process as well as with the general legal and administrative
requirements to become tax compliant businesses.
SARS was encouraged by the spirit of the meeting and views the engagement as
the first of a series of interactions with business owners and the public in
general to further raise awareness around the Small Business Tax Amnesty.
Technical teams from SARS and SANTACO will meet again during the course of the
next two weeks to discuss programmes of tax education and to plan further
workshops with taxi owners on a provincial and regional scale.
The first public engagement with a broader spectrum of small business owners
and representative stakeholder groups will take place on Thursday, 25 May 2006,
during a Small Business Imbizo in East London. SARS will conduct further
Izimbizo in the economic centres of other provinces and regions to encourage
public participation for the Small Business Tax Amnesty.
SARS will also meet other representative Taxi organisation to facilitate
broad stakeholder participation from this sector during the first phase of the
Amnesty which will take effect on 1 August 2006
Enquiries:
Adrian Lackay
Tel: (012) 422 4206
Cell: 083 388 2580
Issued by: South African Revenue Service
22 May 2006
