The South African Revenue Service wants urge employers in the country to submit their 2009 PAYE reconciliations to SARS as soon as possible as there are 2 weeks left of the 2009 Tax Season for employers.
With only 10 working days until the 30 May deadline, the majority of employers have yet to submit their reconciliation and copies of employee tax certificates. By Friday fewer than 45 000 reconciliations and only 2, 5 million employee tax certificates had been received.
This is far below SARS's projections based on last year's experience. Past experience has shown that if employers wait until the last minute they put pressure on the SARS's systems at branches and call centre level which, in turn, cause frustration amongst taxpayers.
Last year over 85% of submissions were done electronically using the free e@syFile PAYE software specially designed by SARS to simplify the process. The upgraded and enhanced 2009 version of e@syFile PAYE is available for download on www.sarsefiling.co.za or on CD at SARS branches.
Employers who fail to submit their PAYE reconciliations and employee tax certificates to SARS by the deadline face severe penalties of up to 10% of the total amount of employees' tax deducted during the 2009 year of assessment.
They will also be preventing their employees from receiving their ITR12 income tax returns timeously once the Tax Season for Individuals begins on 1 July. SARS uses the information supplied by employers to pre-complete employees' income tax returns, greatly simplifying the income tax return process and speeding up the issuing of refunds (where applicable).
For queries about employers' specific policies or strategies, please contact us at employerunit@sars.gov.