The deadline for small businesses to apply for tax amnesty has been extended for a month after massive uptake in the final weeks of the previous 10-month amnesty period.
By the time Finance Minister Trevor Manuel had asked the National Assembly to extend the deadline 275 398 applications for amnesty had been received — a number that South African Revenue Service (Sars) officials say is vastly higher than expected.
After a relatively slow start, Manuel said, ‘the last two weeks saw thousands of applications flooding into Sars officesâ€.
Manuel said small business associations had approached him to ask for an extension, and that it was granted from ‘a position of strengthâ€.
The principle behind the amnesty was to bring into the tax net the unregistered businesess that account for a substantial — if poorly understood — portion of the economy.
The extension follows a prolonged national tour by tax officials, which Sars chief operating officer Logan Wort said had provided a welter of data on the real shape of the economy.
The process included an advertising blitz, and some unconventional encouragement: taxi drivers — a key target of the amnesty process — received a Sunday afternoon SMS telling them to attend meetings with Sars in their area the next day.
‘Most people want to register, they want to be legal,†Wort told the Mail & Guardian.
The new deadline is June 30, and applicants have until August 31 to file supporting documents.
‘It is important that those organisations that approach me for an extension now show that they can deliver with such an extension,†Manuel warned.