25 May 2006
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today held its first Small Business
Imbizo and publicly gave the assurance that SARS will disregard all official
letters that were sent to businesses after 15 February 2006 informing them SARS
is investigating their tax affairs.
This undertaking will attempt to enable more taxpayers to qualify and
participate in the amnesty which the Minister of Finance announced in this
yearâs Budget. Businesses with a turnover of less than R5 million per annum can
apply for tax amnesty after 1 August this year.
The letters SARS will disregard in order to further encourage applications
for amnesty do not include instances where assessments for outstanding taxes
have been raised against a business.
The Imbizo drew a large contingent of about 600 small-business owners from
the greater East London area which included traders, family-owned businesses,
taxi operators and stakeholder representatives. SARS will on a regional basis
work with stakeholders like the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut, the South African
National Taxi Association, National African Federated Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (NAFCOC), the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, South African
Chamber of Business (SACOB), South African Institute of Chartered Accountants
(SAICA) and the CFA to engage small businesses regarding the amnesty.
The Small Business Tax Amnesty is a window of opportunity that will enable
small businesses to regularise their tax affairs and will be considered
for:
* businesses with an annual turn-over of less than R5 million
* businesses who have never registered with SARS as taxpayers
* businesses who are registered with SARS but have not declared all income.
The amnesty process would require of applicants to declare income earned for
the 2004/05 financial year. A 10% penalty will be levied based on income
declared for this financial year.
Enquiries: Adrian Lackay
SARS Communications
Cell: 083 388 2580
Issued by: South African Revenue Service
25 May 2006
