Sars' Large Business Centre is back

Sars Commissioner, Edward Kieswetter

The taxpayer segment that the centre focuses on is large businesses defined as groups or entities with a turnover greater than R1bn; are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; financial services with a turnover greater than R500m; mining companies with turnover greater than R500m, all entities or groups of companies with a combined total assets value greater than R100m, as well as multinational companies. The other client segment is ultra high net-worth individuals whose total assets are in excess of R75m.

Currently corporate income tax is the third largest revenue contributor, having brought in 16.6% of the total revenue in the 2018/2019 financial year.

Speaking to chief executives of top companies, Sars commissioner, Edward Kieswetter presented the value proposition that the re-established centre will offer to bring about voluntary compliance among corporate South Africa.

This value proposition comprises a three-pronged approach of:

• Dedicated relationship management by industry and sector, ensuring that tax teams allocated to the client has specialised knowledge and understanding of the client’s business.
• A highly skilled and professional team with proficiency on multiple tax types for taxpayers with complex tax portfolios, including those operating in multiple tax jurisdictions. To this end, Sars aims to facilitate clarity of the taxpayer’s obligations and improve efficiency in assessments, audits and dispute resolution processes.
• Centralised management of the taxpayer’s tax compliance requirements across tax types which Sars refers to as a one-stop shop end-to-end service. This service provides the taxpayer with seamless interaction with Sars for any tax requirement or query the taxpayer may have, through one relationship management team who manages their entire tax portfolio.