The South African Institute of Taxation says the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the South African Revenue Services (SARS) does have an impact on taxpayers’ rights.
Head of tax practitioner relations and support Gert van Heerden was speaking at the 11th International conference on taxpayer rights held in Pretoria.
As tax agencies around the globe embrace digitalization through the use of AI to improve revenue collection and efficiency, taxpayer rights remain.
Thursday’s proceedings explored how tax agencies are grappling with challenges brought on by advanced technology and the impact on taxpayer privacy rights and trust in the tax system.
Van Heerden says because SARS is relying heavily on AI for revenue purposes this creates an imbalance for having a purpose-built model and taxpayers using free models, outdated and not built for tax legislation.
“One of the things we see going wrong in practice is third party data, if you do not know what third party data is being declared on your behalf because it’s not the tax practitioner submitting the information anymore, it’s third-party submitting information and the moment that the information is incorrect it is up to the taxpayer to start looking for ways to find out what that third party information is and how to correct it. And when it comes to auto assessments, it makes it so much more difficult because people think that when they do an auto assessment, it is going to be simple and say they agree but it’s not that simple,” says Van Heerden.
While SARS’ AI assistant, Lwazi, is meant to provide basic guidance but the responsibility lies on the taxpayer to ensure that the information is correct.
“When SARS puts out information or interpretation notes or in guidelines, they generally take responsibility for it. When it comes to Lwazi it’s your responsibility as a taxpayer, it’s not SARS responsibility to make sure that the information is correct and again, having a practitioner is always the best option,” Van Heerden adds.
Van Heerden says in the absence of a framework and policy there needs to be a balance in the use of AI and the rights of tax rights. He says SARS is currently in the process of finalizing the policy
“We need to know exactly how they use it and that the balance is there. We understand the need to collect revenue and the need to deal with the taxpayers who are sketchy. But for the majority of us taxpayers all we want is for a fair balance and to know what’s happening and transparency,” Van Heerden explains.
