SARS: Desperate & Agressive

[Allant99]

I was prematurely ‘intaxicated’ to receive R41k back from SARS from personal tax on 26th October only to find that they grabbed the R41k to pay the VAT due 28th October by one of my companies. VAT was only due two days later so it was grabbed two days early. We have been exceptionally diligent and faithful paying on time and correct amounts. The companies VAT payment was on a scheduled payment so we now have R38k sitting in VAT limbo and trying to sort out how SARS feels it’s good business to operate like this. How do we sort out the mess of my personal monies paying another legal entities VAT? We desperately need an Ombudsman with real teeth who is Independant and not paid out of SARS budget to reign in an increasingly desperate and aggressive SARS. They just lost my good will.

 

[chrisc]

I sold a house in 2022 for R2,8m. The tax return showing the sales amount was submitted on 30th July 2022, well in time for the submission period

The first assessment was received on 9th September 2024, 25 months after the return was submitted. Apart from the CGT, which I had expected, is R53 365,22 penalty for late payment

Sent an email on 10th September pointing out this long delay. SARS response is to issue a Final Demand for the penalty, which is now R55 775,09

Their argument is that a) I should have looked at the "auto assessment" issued on 30th July 2022 (I did but it stated that manual assessment would be done) and b) I "should have enquired" about the CGT payable. The penalty increases by R 105,50 per day and I was warned a summons would be issued if I do not pay by 22nd November

During my last conversation with SARS, their file is closed and there is no possibility of re-opening it

The lady was aggressive as hell and blamed me for not being pro-active enough to fulfill my tax obligations

 

[MrGray]

Apparently, if you emigrated with your family even your children must somehow file a "ceased to be tax resident" form with SARS if they were born in South Africa, otherwise if there is ever any money payable to them from SA it will be withheld. Obviously only an issue if they stand to inherit from SA or are beneficiaries of any SA policies.

 

[chrisc]

SARS sent me a "mandate" authorising them to debit my account with R57 002.14 on 29th November

Account has a balance of R 6350,00. Still to pay rates and levy for November

Capitec said the best is if they won't agree to staggered payments, send it back and let it bounce. It will cost R3,50

 

[Jan van Riebeeckstad]

SARS sent me a "mandate" authorising them to debit my account with R57 002.14 on 29th November

Account has a balance of R 6350,00. Still to pay rates and levy for November

Capitec said the best is if they won't agree to staggered payments, send it back and let it bounce. It will cost R3,50

Will you be using cash forever going forward?

 

[Zellephant]

I was prematurely ‘intaxicated’ to receive R41k back from SARS from personal tax on 26th October only to find that they grabbed the R41k to pay the VAT due 28th October by one of my companies. VAT was only due two days later so it was grabbed two days early. We have been exceptionally diligent and faithful paying on time and correct amounts. The companies VAT payment was on a scheduled payment so we now have R38k sitting in VAT limbo and trying to sort out how SARS feels it’s good business to operate like this. How do we sort out the mess of my personal monies paying another legal entities VAT? We desperately need an Ombudsman with real teeth who is Independant and not paid out of SARS budget to reign in an increasingly desperate and aggressive SARS. They just lost my good will.

Had a similar situation in June. That R38k sitting in Limbo should be reflecting on your VAT SOA, on the bottom of the page, as unallocated fund.

You will be able to either utilise this towards payment of future VAT liabilities, but will need to do a manual allocation each time, as SARS will not automate this. They will just insist you keep on paying in, unless you manually allocate this to a future VAT liability.

In our case, we are primarily an export business, and almost always owed VAT, we very seldom pay in, so I wanted the money refunded. There is no way to request this request for refund online. You need to contact sars, they will then ask you to email or upload a manual request for refund. You will get a generic notice saying your request was received. But nothing more than that, and also no indication of how long the process will take. In our case, it took almost two month before the case was allocated to an agent, and we then got a notice to say it had been allocated, and will be finalised within 21 working days. Obviously this never happened.

I then lodged a complaint online, which you then again have to wait 21 days for before being able to complain to the ombudsman. Once I submitted the complaint to the ombudsman they ruled in my favour and instructed SARS to immediately refund the moneys and interest, and three days later the initial amount was refunded, but without any interest.

Unfortunately, this is not considered a “systemic issue” at this stage, so you can’t complain to the ombudsman until you have exhausted all of SARS internal procedures.

So, my recomodstion is:

1. Contact SARS and manually submit the request for refund of all unallocated amounts. Take note of the date this is requested

2. On the 22nd working day after submitting the request, log a complaint on efilling.

3. On the 22nd working day after logging the complaint, open a case at the Ombudsman. This is I think the only way you will get this sorted


As I side note. Prior to going through this exercise, we were audited each and every time we claimed a VAT refund. Since this case was handled by the Ombudsman, my last two VAT refunds were paid within 48 hours of submission, without any questions being asked.