SARS could miss adjudication deadline

Hundreds of thousands of tax payers have been paid out by SARS

South African Revenue Services (SARS) could miss the deadline to complete the process for the small business amnesty adjudication.

SARS wants the adjudication process, involving more than 300 000 applications, to be concluded by end of March next year. But it says some applicants have not yet submitted supporting documents and this could result in more delays.

When the process of adjudicating the small business amnesty applications started in August last year, only 12 people were to work on the applications. As more small businesses came forward for tax amnesty, there was a need to hire more staff. In August this year, additional staff of more 150 people were hired.

SARS has set aside close to R16 million for the purpose of small business amnesty, but says outstanding documents by some applicants could drag out the process.

SARS says the work of tracking-down offenders will run concurrently with the amnesty process. It says the process of hunting down those who did not comply, will continue in the long term.