In early November, shortly after the 31 October mid-year employer filing season SARS “mistakenly” sent out thousands of text messages to individual taxpayers telling them their accounts were in arrears and they needed to act now to prevent legal action.
A very successful tactic I should imagine as there is little doubt this triggered many individuals to pay their taxes well before their due date. As a result, I would not be surprised if this “mistake” becomes a more regular practice.
Timing of payment of personal taxes:
The Income Tax Administration Act provides the following deadline for paying one’s personal taxes:
The taxpayer has until the ‘Second Date’ on their annual tax assessment to pay any Assessed Tax liability raised by SARS. After this date SARS will levy interest at a rate of 10.5% per annum until the liability is settled.
Taxpayers are usually granted a period of at least six weeks in those cases where assessments are finalised before the 15th of the month in which to pay the assessed tax due. Where assessments are finalised after the 15th of the month, taxpayers are usually given until the end of the second month, that is, a period of up to 10 weeks within which to pay the tax due.
In the majority of the cases where SARS has issued the above-mentioned text messages, the Second Dates are only 31 January 2018. Taxpayers are therefore within their rights to hold on to their money until 31 January 2018 without fear of interest being raised.