Thursday, the last day of the month, will be a very long day in the revenue offices — it will end at 1pm on Saturday.
South African Revenue Services (Sars) spokesperson Logan Wort said Sars is being ”inundated” with people wanting to take advantage of the small business tax amnesty — which ends on May 31 — and, to help them, will accept applications until 1pm on Saturday.
”This is an administrative measure to assist applicants for the amnesty and forms submitted on these days will be deemed to have been received by Thursday 31 May 2007,” said Wort.
”The Sars offices will be open until 1pm on Saturday June 2 2007 to receive amnesty applications.”
Wort said there had been ”long queues” of applicants until late in the evenings and inquiries from businesses, including taxi operators.
”We want to make sure that all those who have heeded the call to make their businesses legal and take advantage of this amnesty will indeed be accommodated by the South African Revenue Service.”
On Tuesday, Sars spokesperson Adrian Lackay said applications were arriving at the rate of about 4 000 a day and ”far more than 73 000 applications” had been received since the amnesty opened on August 1.
The amnesty is for small businesses with a turnover of less than R10-million a year who defaulted on income tax, VAT or payroll taxes.
The amnesty call centre can be reached on 0860 1212 20. — Sapa