The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today held its first Small Business Imbizo and publicly gave the assurance that SARS will disregard all official letters that were sent to businesses after 15 February 2006 informing them SARS is investigating their tax affairs.
This undertaking will attempt to enable more taxpayers to qualify and participate in the amnesty which the Minister of Finance announced in this year?s Budget. Businesses with a turnover of less than R5 million per annum can apply for tax amnesty after 1 August this year.
The letters SARS will disregard in order to further encourage applications for amnesty do not include instances where assessments for outstanding taxes have been raised against a business.
The Imbizo drew a large contingent of about 600 small business owners from the greater East London area which included traders, family-owned businesses, taxi operators and stakeholder representatives. SARS will on a regional basis work with stakeholders like the Afrikaanse Handels Instituut, the SA National Taxi Association, NAFCOC, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, SACOB, SAICA and the CFA to engage small businesses regarding the amnesty.
The Small Business Tax Amnesty is a window of opportunity that will enable small businesses to regularise their tax affairs and will be considered for:
The amnesty process would require of applicants to declare income earned for the 2004/05 financial year. A 10% penalty will be levied based on income declared for this financial year.
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ISSUED BY THE COMMISSIONER FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
PRETORIA