IF you’ve never submitted a tax return or aren’t sure if you should, here are three guidelines to follow, from Charné van der Walt, who is a registered tax practitioner.
1. Make sure you have a tax number
Many individual taxpayers are automatically registered by their employers. First check with your employer if you have a tax number.
Otherwise, contact the South African Revenue Service (Sars) call centre.
Sars will only give you the tax number if you can verify yourself as a tax payer, and you may need to visit a Sars branch.
Your tax number is
10 digits long. It should appear on the IRP5 you get each year from your employer to show what you earned in the last tax year.
2. If you have a tax number, make sure your Sars records are in order
When you obtain your tax number, you need to check these three things:
- The tax year you began.
The tax year runs from 1 March, and ends on 28 February the next year. The return should be submitted by 25 November.
- Check if you are behind on any returns.
- Check if you owe the taxman anything. Request a statement from Sars.
3. Check whether you need to submit a tax return
It is not necessary to submit a return for a particular tax year, if you:
- Worked for one firm and your gross income was less than R350 000.
- Did not have any other allowances from your employer.
- Are not claiming any medical aid or retirement annuity contributions.
- Earned interest less than R23 800 per tax year (below 65 years) and not more than R34 500 interest per tax year (65 years and older.
- But you should submit a return if you had more than one employer in one tax year, or do freelance work, or have a rental income.
Advice: Hand in a tax return when you have a tax number, even if no taxes are due to Sars for that year.
