Six million filed tax returns says Gordhan

A smiling Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has thanked South Africans for paying their tax on time. Image: GCIS

"The growth in the number of tax returns filed despite an increase in the threshold for submitting a return from R120,000 to R250,000 shows the continued growth in tax compliance by fellow South Africans," he said in a statement.

"The ability to collect tax revenue from individual and corporate citizens to finance the provision of public services and the provision of socio-economic infrastructure has been one of the cornerstones of our democracy these past 20 years," he said.

The deadline for the submission of tax returns by taxpayers who earn an income from an employer was22 November.

The preliminary result of the 2013 tax season indicated that 6.09m returns were submitted. This was an increase of 7.7% compared with 2012.

Of eligible taxpayers in the country, 91.5% submitted their returns on time and a further 1.55m outstanding returns from previous years were also submitted.

The SA Revenue Service (SARS) received R674m in penalties from defaulting taxpayers.

From the returns submitted, 99.86% were sent electronically and 94.83% of the returns were assessed within a few seconds with refunds being paid within 72 hours.

SARS paid out R14.2bn in tax refunds to two million taxpayers.

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge