MEETING MINUTES
01 November 2011
Opening:
The regular meeting of the SARS National Stakeholder Meeting was called to order at 9H00 on 2 November 2011 in Boardroom 3, LeHae La SARS, Head Office by Mark Kingon. Mark, thanked everyone for having attended the meetings throughout the year and for their involvement and contacting SARS whenever SARS has been experiencing problems specifically around system issues. He also requested that the meeting should address issues at a higher level.
List of attendeesPresent:
Alton Netshivhungululu
Cecile Bothe
Cikizwa Hili
Colin Wolfsohn
Erika Dykes
Ettiene Retief
Firdous Jacobs
Jabulile Mhlongo
Jonas Makwakwa
Mahomed Kamdar
Mark Kingon
Muneer Hassan
Narcizio Makwakwa
Ncolas Van Wyk
Philip Kotze
Pieter Lombard
Puleng Owen Manyaka
Rani Miller
Renee Magazi
Sally Hansen
Selina Ravele
Tinty Mpye
Willem van der Vyver
Zebeda Mamaila
/ Apologies:
Albert Jordaan
Amanda van Vuuren
Babs Naidoo
Benjamin De Klerk
Godfrey Modise
Faith Ngwenya
John Cruickshank
Michelle Welgemoed
Stiaan Klue
Sunita Manik
Thamsanqa Mabandla
Thinus Marx
Yvonne Jefferies
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
The Agenda was approved as handed out.
APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.
AGENDA ISSUES
1. conversion of pr numbers
· Tax Practitioners are making use of the Tax Practitioner Contact Centre in order to resolve their queries. Most of those Practitioners experience IVR authentication failure and this result in self-help option being under-utilised. The current structure of the practitioner number makes it difficult to enter the number correctly as it contains both alpha-numeric characters. It has also been discovered that there is a lot of practitioners who are on register that does no longer meet the requirement to be registered.
· SARS proposal: to convert all practitioner numbers either to numeric or alpha. This proposal will involve re-issuing every Tax Practitioner who is legitimately to be on register with a new practitioner number. SARS will have to deactivate practitioners identified as no longer meet the requirements to be on register as per Section 67A of the Income Tax Act.
· Practitioners have requested to be given a reasonable notification once the decision has been taken on the conversion of PR numbers and on deactivation of those who does not meet the requirements to be on register.
· Renee informed everyone that within a month a communication detailing proposals on the conversion of Pr-numbers will be sent out to all Practitioners to exercise their options.
· In the next national meeting practitioners will be informed of proposed time-lines by SARS Modernisation.
· Practitioners enquired whether SARS could consider registering a practice as a practitioner instead of an individual. It was agreed that SARS would take into consideration the requirement s as per Sec.67A upon deciding on the issue.
2. Contact Centre
Firdous gave the following feedback:
· The implementation of a technical support program at Service Centres to deal with e-filing and e@syfile issues is being investigated.
· The escalation of cases not resolved in the Service Centre and the contacting of taxpayers within specific timeframes is being looked into.
· A need for practitioners to be informed of new updates within the organization has been identified. SARS will aim to improve on this aspect.
3. SARS Branch offices
· Firdous and Mark will be unable to attend the next Regional Practitioner meeting in Polokwane. Sally will send through dates for the scheduled meeting in the New Year for Mark and Firdous to check their availability.
· Long queues are still a problem at Bellville. Collin will provide examples of how long they have to wait before being assisted.
Mahomed will send information pertaining to the Edenvale Branch Office.
· An approval from Exco has been given to expand branch operations foot-print and to extend the number of offices with practitioners desks countrywide. In the next Stakeholders meeting Firdous will have a presentation handy on the current plan in place for the branch expansion.
· Practitioners were referred to the SARS website for the list of SARS mobile offices in various regions during this current year.’s tax season.
· Practitioners were also informed that SARS is looking at updating the website on new improvements within branch offices.
4. VAT
· VAT Reviews: currently the % on VAT reviews is low
Jonas gave an overview of the VAT review processes to clear up misunderstandings on the issue and highlighted the following:
· VAT refunds were being paid out quicker and that pre 05/2011 refunds being held back is due to system error and are being released as when identified.
· There are currently weekly add backs amounting to R100m.
· Revised assessments are on the increase particularly when supporting documents are requested and about R3bilion revised assessment has been done on audit.
· SARS is considering the reversal of about 10 000 cases where no supporting documents have been received after final demand notices were sent out and telephonic engagement occurred. A proposal on the table is to automatically disallow all input claims made. All agreed that sine cases have been outstanding for more that 3 to 4 months, a communications should be send out and implemented.
· Practitioners have requested for the format on VAT Audit letter to be changed – but Mark has indicated that there is a lot of administrative work involved and therefore cannot be changed.
· Practitioners have requested for some clarity on voluntary and or compulsory registration for VAT vendors. This issue is very complex in terms of it’s practicality, a document that gives differences between the two has been drafted and is still under discussion.
5. INCOME TAX
· Practitiners request was for SARS to re-allocate Income Tax refunds to outstanding debts on other taxes. Mark has indicated that that will be not easy to do as the system is not designed for that, that procedure needs manual intervention.
· Tax payments not to be put as an option on provisional tax – Mark to consider
· Practitioners have requested for an electronic signature on the NOO, Mark will double check
· SARS is issuing a letter of demand that requires taxpayers to react within 7 days, practitioners have indicated that that is not acceptable. SARS is busy working on changing that to 14 working days, Practitioners are requesting for 21 working days.
· A request for a ‘Royal loss field’ to be removed on the ITA34.
6. PAYE
· Filing season for Employers is now over. The challenges that employers are currently facing is the employees Income Tax numbers.
· Bulk registration for employers has been finilised, where SARS registers employees using the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Reconciliation submissions provided by employers.
· Withholding taxes will start on the 1st January 2012.
7. Efiling
· IRP5s on E-filing are sometimes not refreshing. Practitioners were requested for examples.
· Changes on medical Aid contributions will be introduced on 1st of March 2012, This will have an effect on August 2012 employers reconciliations.
· Currently a new design on company returns is in progress. The roll-out will be done in phases and practitioners will be given an opportunity to comment.
8. Tax Clearance Certificates
· Mark requested that a proposal on the 5 year cut off period relating to outstanding amounts and returns to be send through by January for SARS consideration.
· Practitioners were informed that the TCC policy has been updated and that a TCC will only be issued to taxpayers with amounts outstanding of less than R100. Mark informed all that he will take this issue up with OPSCO.
· Collin had cases where the TCC was declined for clients with credit and without the decline letters being issued. Narcizio explained that these cases are not declined they just go on failed status which needs manual intervention by a SARS official and that the problem has since been rectified. Practitioners experiencing the same problem going forward were urged to forward such to Ciki.
9. TEU
· Practitioners are experiencing difficulties to interact with TEU staff members. This issue has been highlighted with the Commissioner.
10. GENERAL
· A plan on automating with banks on IT88s is in place.
· Practitioners were requested not to give their E-filing login details to clients.
Adjournment:
Meeting was adjourned at 11:50 by Mark Kingon. The next meeting will take place early next year (2012) - date will be communicated.
Minutes submitted by:
Approved by:
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