Pretoria - Thousands of taxpayers are this afternoon scrambling to file their tax returns ahead of the midnight deadline.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has seen an increase in last minute calls to its call centre as the hours while away on the last day of filing for individuals.
SARS spokesperson, Adrian Lackay, said 3.7 million returns have been submitted to date since the season began in July. Today's deadline applies to non-provisional taxpayers.
Lackey said the SARS call centre handled 50 000 calls from taxpayers on Thursday in comparison to Monday's twenty-two thousand calls.
The call centre, which comprises 800 staff members who answer questions from the public, will remain open until 8pm tonight.
"By 11 am today, the call centre had handled 23 533 calls of which 19 607 had hung up," Lackay said on Friday adding that calls were expected to double in the afternoon.
The Revenue Services urged taxpayers to be patient when calling the call centre due to the high volumes of calls made.
The eFiling website (http://www.sarsefiling.co.za/) said Lackay was operating normally.
"The queues for assistance have not been as long as last year's it shows that people have filed early this year," he explained.
SARS also warned taxpayers that there will be no extension for filing following today's deadline.
People can call the centre on 0800 00 7277.
