Sars is changing the way taxpayers file their returns as its access to information grows.

Bruce Whitfield:
If you are wondering why you haven't yet received your IRP 5, that is because Sars is changing the way in which you will file future returns. Details of that coming out today and to help us through it is Billy Joubert, who is tax director at Deloitte and Billy, it is basically going to put an additional burden on companies and hopefully, simplify things for individuals as well.

Billy Joubert:
Yes, I think the idea is actually that it will simplify things for everybody, including companies. I think it is going to give a bit of teething trouble as one would imagine that, I think one also has to contextualise it and see it as part of a process that began last year and there is a media statement on the Sars website that explains it actually very well and puts it in context in terms of where we are coming from and where we are going to. Basically, I think the trend that we are seeing is that Sars has access to more and more of the information that previously they relied on individuals to put onto their tax returns. These will now be submitted by employers and by other people from whom you derive taxable income like banks who will issue you with certificates for interest income etc. So in the fullness of time what we will have is a system where tax payers receive a pre-populated tax return from Sars to check and add anything that is not there but instead of having to fill everything in yourself, you will actually get hopefully 80 percent of the work done for you automatically.

Bruce Whitfield:
And that theoretically is all very well and good, it also takes a really unnecessary step out of the process whereby your employer or if you have more than one employer would send you an IRP 5 or two IRP 5s, you wouldn't fill in your tax return, will go to a filing cabinet at home and you won't be able to find it on time and a day before the tax return was due you chuck it all together and hopefully not make too many mistakes and chuck it into a box at Sars and there you would go. This should take a lot of that out of the system.

Billy Joubert:
Yes and in fact, quite a few people who previously were required to submit tax returns won't have to do so anymore. They have mentioned that if you earn less than R110 000 per year and you have a single employer then you won't be required to submit a tax return at all. So I think you know the idea is that in the long run it will make life easier for everybody and you know what is stated in the media statement it is going to be easier for individuals and easier also for Sars to pick up non-compliance.

Bruce Whitfield:
Does it put an additional burden on companies as I suggested it might?

Billy Joubert:
I don't think it will in the long run, I think it will make things easier but there are going to be transitional problems. I was chatting to my colleagues who actually are involved on a day-to-day basis working with PAYE and they were saying that there are practical problems when people derive a foreign income as well as a South African income or where details changed like you get a new passport with a new number so you know there are various issues that arise in practice and there is a transitional phase during which one has to become used to this new way of doing things. But the fact is we are well on our way through it, we have already had one year with a simpler tax return where you don't submit your supporting documentation etc. we are getting more used to people submitting electronically so I think it is an ongoing process that began a while ago.

Bruce Whitfield:
Returns already delayed this year - what are the new deadlines? Have those been specified? I didn't see exact dates there was something about the end of June.

Billy Joubert:
No, it is not the end of June….

Bruce Whitfield:
I'm sorry Billy, this is crucial information and your cellphone has decided to rebel on us. Try that one more time.

Billy Joubert:
Can you hear me now?

Bruce Whitfield:
Not great. Maybe what you could do is I am going to put you back to my producer Thekiso and if we can just get those crucial dates from you and then we will put them out in just a little while. Billy Joubert on a recalcitrant cellphone, he is tax director at Deloitte.

If you are an employer you have got until August to submit under the new tax system. Individuals who submit manually have got until the 21st of November and if you do the electronic thing that Sars is trying to encourage everybody to do your last minute deadline will be the 23rd of January 2009.