2 million income tax returns submitted

"SARS is pleased to announce that it passed the 2 million mark of income tax returns by tax payers. This happened on Thursday, 20 August 2015," said the revenue service.

This indicates that 44.77% of taxpayers required to submit a tax return have already done so compared to 39.31% at the same time last year.

The tax season began on 1 July 2015, when taxpayers could officially commence completing and submitting their 2015 tax returns.
So far, 2 001 287 personal income tax returns have been submitted to SARS. Of the total submissions, 1 066 978 (53.31%) have been via eFiling while 933 527 (46.64%) of taxpayers opted to submit at our branches.

A total of 783 (0.04%) taxpayers have submitted manually via post or a SARS drop box.

SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane, thanked South Africans for their patriotism in meeting their tax obligations and responsibilities, and also accredited the achievement of meeting the 2 million mark to the work done by SARS employees across South Africa.

"We thank taxpayers for their patriotism and recognition of the importance of tax revenues towards socially and economically developing our country. This has certainly made our job easier this year and contributes to nation building and social cohesion.

"This is also testimony to the excellent work being done by SARS employees across South Africa in serving taxpayers through the branches, call centre and online, and spreading the message of compliance," he explained.

The deadline for taxpayers who submit their tax returns manually by post or by dropping them off in a SARS drop box is 30 September 2015.
The deadline for all non-provisional taxpayers is 27 November 2015. Non-provisional taxpayers are the majority of employed individuals who submit a tax return and who earn an income from one or more employer.

The deadline for provisional taxpayers who submit returns via eFiling is 29 January 2016. Provisional taxpayers form a much smaller segment of the tax base and are those individuals with other forms of income like investment income, income from business activities, rental income, royalties income or directors of companies.