Pretoria - Tax payers who have not yet submitted their tax annual income tax return and paid what is due to the South African Revenue Services (SARS) have until Friday to do so.
The 26 November tax return deadline will not be extended and those who fail to meet the deadline will face administrative penalties that accumulate every month that a return is outstanding.
According to SARS, non-provisional taxpayers constitute the biggest segment of individual taxpayers in the country.
To date, almost 3.2 million returns have been submitted to SARS since the start of Tax Season 2010 on 1 July.
Of this total, more than 1.7 million returns were submitted electronically via efiling while, SARS branch offices have assisted more than 1.3 million taxpayers to submit their returns electronically.
The smaller segments of provisional taxpayers - people who have additional sources of income, such as taxable interest - have until 31 January 2011 to submit their annual income tax return.
By the end of last week, SARS had received about 100 000 more returns compared with the corresponding period last year, which is an increase of 3 percent.
SARS said this was very encouraging because it showed people were keen to avoid the last minute rush.
SARS has experienced lower volumes of calls to its Contact Centre this year compared with previous years, down from more than 47 000 calls per day during the last two weeks of the 2009 Tax Season, to an average of 25 000 calls per day last week.
Based on past experience, however, it can be expected that the volume of calls to the SARS call centre, the number of electronic submissions of SARS efiling and the number of taxpayers at branch offices will increase this week.
In Johannesburg, SARS will also extend its points of service to taxpayers as from today. Staff will be available to taxpayers at a temporary service point at Beyers Naude Square (previously known as the Library Gardens) in central Johannesburg.
Other points of service outreach across the country include:
* Queenstown Town Hall 22 - 26 November 2010
* Mthatha - Maclear Municipal Hall 24 & 25 November 2010 and Freedom Square 26 Nov 2010
* Pretoria - outside SARS Van der Walt Street branch office 22 - 26 November
* Rustenburg - Thabazimbi Library - 25 November 2010
* Richards Bay Civic Centre - 24 - 26 November 2010
* Port Shepstone South Coast Mall - 24 - 26 November 2010
* Newcastle Town Hall - 24-26 November 2010
* Ladysmith Oval Checkers - 24 - 26 November 2010
* Kokstad Library - 24 - 26 November 2010
* Harrismith Library - 22 - 26 November 2010
* Kimberley Rhodesdene Mall - 24 - 26 November 2010
* Kuruman - Kuruman Library - 22 - 26 November 2010
