13 October 2006
Pretoria â An exemption notice for tax advisors, in terms of the Financial
Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), were gazetted today in a special Government
Gazette No 29299.
Effectively the exemption provisions will remove the probability of
prosecution for tax advisers, accountants and tax practitioners who assist or
advise a client to apply for the small business tax amnesty.
In terms of the FICA, advisers who act as intermediaries between their
clients and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) are required to report
suspicious transactions arising from information disclosed to him or her by the
client.
SARS is confident that the exemption notice, available at http://www.sars.gov.za and http://www.fic.gov.za, will positively influence
the public response to the small business tax amnesty which came into effect on
1 August this year. Tax advisors play a crucial role in amnesty processes and a
communication has been issued to the South African Institute of Chartered
Accountants (SAICA) and the Independent Regulatory Body for Auditors informing
their respective membership of the exemption regulations.
The amnesty is available to small and emerging businesses with a turnover of
less than R10 million per year. Such businesses are required to apply to SARS
for amnesty by making full disclosure of their financial affairs.
In turn, such businesses may qualify for amnesty which would cover a variety
of taxes, including income tax, value added tax (VAT) and payroll taxes.
Although the initial response to the amnesty has been slow, the SARS Small
Business Tax Amnesty Unit received its 1 000th application during the course of
the week. To date 1 102 businesses have applied for amnesty while the amnesty
unit and the SARS call centre received close to 20 000 public enquiries from
prospective applicants.
In addition, three taxi owners in Soweto today came forward to apply for
amnesty. These were the first applications from this sector which in SARS' view
has a number of prospective applicants and possible beneficiary of the amnesty.
A fourth application was also submitted from the owner of a funeral
parlour.
The applications were received by SARS officials who visited the Walter
Sisulu Memorial in Kliptown, Soweto. This is part of an extensive outreach and
tax education campaign SARS will extend and intensify over the next few weeks.
This initiative requires of SARS branch office staff to assemble teams who
visit small businesses areas across the country.
SARS remains confident that the number of applications will increase
steadily over the next few weeks. Public enquiries regarding the amnesty can be
made to the Small Business Amnesty Unit.
Call centre number: 0860 12 12 20
Fax: (011) 602 5502
E-mail: sbau@sars.gov.za
Postal address:
P O Box 292
Groenkloof
0027
For further enquiries contact:
Adrian Lackay, SARS Communications
Tel: (012) 422 4206
Cell: 083 388 2580
Issued by: South African Revenue Service (SARS)
13 October 2006
