Tax returns exceed 4 million milestone
Pretoria, Sunday 29 January 2012 - South African taxpayers have raised the tax compliance bar yet again.For the first time in this country's history the number of individual tax returns received for any specific tax year has exceeded the 4 million mark.
By Thursday 26 January 2012, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) had received 4,010,980 tax returns for the 2010/11 tax year.
This number includes 3.86 million individuals and trusts who submitted their tax returns by the deadline of 25 November last year, as well as provisional taxpayers who have until midnight on Tuesday 31 January 2012 to submit their returns electronically on Sars eFiling.
At the corresponding time for the 2010 Tax Season, SARS had received 3,523,707returns, which means 487 273 more returns have been received for the 2011 Tax Season which represents a 13.8% increase in the number of returns submitted.
This figure is likely to grow even further as provisional taxpayers use eFiling until 31 January 2012 to submit their returns. Provisional taxpayers are individuals with additional sources of income like investment income or trading income from operating a business, which is not subject to Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) deductions.