/ 15 May 2008

Focus shifts to employers for 2008 tax season

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) on Thursday announced details for the 2008 tax season that for the first time puts specific emphasis on the central role of employers in the personal income tax system.

For 2008, changes would be introduced that would impact on the legal obligation of employers who administer payroll taxes such as Paye, UIF, Site and SDL.

”These changes will affect the way in which employers submit their annual Paye declarations to Sars, which must reflect deductions made from the salary of employees and whether these have been paid to Sars on behalf of employees”, Sars said.

For 2008, Sars would introduce to the Paye system a simplified reconciliation process based on the policy of declaration and acceptance of such a declaration by Sars.

From this year employers must take responsibility of ensuring reconciliation and providing proof of reconciliation to Sars.

Sars would assist employers by providing a custom-built software program free of charge.

Sars advised employers from now until June 30 2008 to start preparing for the changes.

Companies then had a 60 day window period — July 1 2008 to August 29 2008 — to submit employer Paye deductions to Sars.

For individuals, the filing period opens on September 1 2008.

The deadline for the manual submission of returns is November 21 2008 and the deadline for electronic submission of returns is January 23 2009.

From 2008 Sars will provide individual tax returns in multiple official languages on demand. – Sapa