16Jun
“If you have received a Personal Income Tax Administrative Penalty notification, this was issued due to the late or non-submission of one or more Income Tax Returns.” - SARS web page.
Take note:. This fine has the potential of decimating your financial planning.
Just to be clear - What is an Income Tax Return and what is this penalty all about?
Your income tax return is a form (called a IT12 or IT14) you fill in and hand in to SARS – BEFOR A SPESIFIC DATE each year. In the form you declare your income you received, claim expenses allowed to be deducted and then the taxman calculate your tax owed. Then the taxman deducts what you paid during the year and let you know if he has to pay you back, or you have to pay in. You do this on their website and the process is fairly scary because it can cost you money.
This is not the penalty.
The penalty or fine is for handing in the income tax form in late (or not yet). It is levied at a rate of between R250.00 per month and 16 000.00 per month depending in your taxable income of the year before.
Yes – PER MONTH!… Per late submission.
So if you haven’t submitted your income tag for 3 years – then it is R250 to R16 000.00 per submission per month.
It sounds like the marketing line from a get rich quick scheme, but this is not. It is a real-world fine imposed by SARS on you, one that you are going to pay 9.9 times out of 10. This means you need to do something as soon as possible, for you can be hit with fines of thousands of Rands if you do nothing.
Yes, it is legal, and you will most probably end up paying your hard-earned cash to SARS if you don’t sort this out.
Should you have a suspicion you might be, or have been slapped with this fine, get in touch with us as soon as possible, so that we can assist you to stop the penalties and attempt to mitigate the fines already levied.
aico@aico.co.za or 084 452 5555
Comments
