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When will SARS respond? · Tax Break: South African tax for professionals

• 0:11
  Welcome and thank you for joining me for Tax Break.
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  This is a podcast about South African tax for South African
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  tax professionals and practitioners.
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  My name is Peter Frenchwoman, and in each episode I discuss a
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  topic or a recent development in South African tax.
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  And I tried to keep the episode short enough that you can listen
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  to them whenever you've got a few minutes in your calendar.
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  I would like you to like to ask you if you like the podcast or
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  if you enjoyed the specific episode to forward that to one
• 0:41
  other person in your network. This chair the link on on your
• 0:46
  podcast platform with him and do help me grow the the listener
• 0:51
  base in this way. I would very much appreciate
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  that. I'm also tasting a bit of a new
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  setup with the microphone today, so if you if the sound sounds
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  the same better, please let me know.
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  I would appreciate feedback on that as well.
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  So then to jump into our topic. So at the moment, I've, I've got
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  about 11 instances where of of, of, of objections.
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  We have assisted clients to draft the grounds of objection.
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  So the objection is in the process.
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  It's been submitted to Saginaw and all of the clients are
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  asking the same question. So I decided, let me make a
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  podcast episode on that. And that question is when are we
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  going to get, so when is going to come back to us?
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  So when are we going to get something from Sash?
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  So I guess it comes down to the the human psyche of not wanting
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  to, not wanting to wait, but also especially something like a
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  dispute, not wanting it to be hanging and pending for too
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  long. I think the other reality is
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  that with these tax disputes is often cash on the line.
• 2:00
  So it is quite important to, to, to know when you can or when,
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  when you can expect this, this dispute to be resolved or at
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  least progress in some way. So if we look at objections or
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  maybe the, the broader dispute process for that, for that
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  matter, it's governed by Chapter 9 of the Tax Administration Act
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  and then also by rules promulgated under Section 103 of
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  the Tax Administration Act. Now, these rules and, and
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  provisions of the law prescribed periods and these periods are
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  mostly prescribed by reference to business days.
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  So let's maybe start at that point.
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  What exactly is a business day? So if you look at the definition
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  of a business day, it's a day that is not a Saturday, not a
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  Sunday or a public holiday. Then the definition goes on to
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  say there are also some other days that are excluded for
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  purposes of complying with the provisions of Chapter 9, which,
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  as I've already mentioned, that's where we find the, the,
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  the dispute process. So if we look at this specific
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  exclusions for, for, for Chapter 9 purposes, and this typically
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  affects disputes around year end.
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  So when you start submitting information, do such by October,
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  November, then these spirits may welcome into play.
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  Or on the other side, if you need to take the next step in
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  the, in the dispute, then it could also afford you a bit of
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  time. So the specific additional
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  periods that are excluded are the days between 16 December of
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  each year and 15 January of the following year.
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  And both days are included. So there's an additional period
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  of time that doesn't count as business days for dispute
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  purposes. So if we then go on to look at
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  what are the timelines that you can expect the response from
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  such it depends on where in the dispute process you are.
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  And it's a combination of the, the law and the rules that would
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  give you this, this, this, the these periods.
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  So if the place in the process where you are, you've you've
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  requested reasons, Dane, if Zach believes that you've got
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  sufficient reasons, they've got 30 business days to tell you
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  that. If Sash believes that you don't
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  have sufficient reasons and they're going to provide you
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  with reasons, they've got 45 business days to do that.
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  This period can be extended by a further 45 business days.
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  If you've now you've, you've received your reasons, you've
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  submitted the the objection. So if the outcome of an
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  objection is that Sarge requires more documentation from the tax
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  payer, then we are looking at they need to ask that within 30
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  business days from the objection if there is an outcome to the
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  objection. So are there and allowed to
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  disallow to partially allowed Sasha's got 60 business days
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  from the date of the objection to to provide that outcome or if
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  they've asked for information for for documentation, 45 days
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  from the business days from the date when the documentation was
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  submitted to them. So just to put that in, in, into
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  perspective, if we're looking at 60 business days, you are
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  looking at, in, in terms of months, at more or less three
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  month period that scientists got to respond to objections as a,
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  as a rule when it comes to appeals and other words, now
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  your objection has been disallowed and the tax payer
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  wants to appeal that outcome. There's a few more permutations
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  there. So the, the, the, the, the, the
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  next step in the process could be to, to follow the ADR
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  process. It could be to go to the tax
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  board, the Tax Court, and each step has got its own rules and
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  its own process with its own timelines.
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  So I'm not going to go into all the different permutations
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  there. Important perhaps to know at
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  this point is that these things are all governed by the dispute
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  rules. So that's where you would go to
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  find the the relevant periods. The last aspect I would like to
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  conclude with today is what if it happens that you've now
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  waited out this period and Zach hasn't responded yet.
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  So I would like to leave you with the idea the the detail of
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  it. I think we need to do a another
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  episode on, but there is a process to deal with non
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  compliance with the dispute rules, which includes not
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  sticking to the prescribed periods.
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  So that's the rule 56 process. So if Sash doesn't comply with
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  the rules and I, I guess it could go the other way around as
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  well to say that the tax payer doesn't comply.
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  Just be aware that there is a mechanism in Rule 56 to to deal
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  with this. So in summary, I think they do
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  take away points. The first one is that the rules
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  describe certain periods not only for taxpayers, because I
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  think we are all quite well aware of the the periods within
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  which we need to do something, but also for sash.
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  And important here is these spirits are not just a week or
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  two, they are longer periods of time.
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  Second point is if Sarge does not keep to the periods then
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  there are mechanisms and steps in the rules to, to, to to, to
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  take if there is non compliance. So it's not that you that the
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  tax payer would be without remedies if such doesn't comply
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  with the periods. That's that for today's episode.
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  If you've got any questions or comments, you're more than
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  welcome to send me an e-mail. My e-mail address, as always, is
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  in the show notes. Just a reminder again, nothing
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  in this episode was intended to be tax advice or replacement for
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  tax advice. The purpose of this podcast is
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  for information purposes only. Until next time, goodbye.