Pretoria – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) says there has been an overwhelmingly positive response to the launch of the 2013 tax season.
SARS spokesperson Adrian Lackay said by 9am on Wednesday, the total number of tax returns submitted amounted to 198 276. From the total submissions, 135 377 came via e-filing, while 62 855 were submitted manually at SARS branches nationwide.
Since the weekend, more than 250 000 returns were issued on eFiling to taxpayers and tax practitioners, with 94 000 returns submitted yesterday.
“Activity by taxpayers and tax practitioners on the eFiling site continues to reach new levels - yesterday more than 320 000 log-ins onto the site was recorded with more than 300 000 recorded on Monday. The highest number of log-ins per day during 2012 was 266 000.”
Lackay said 88 288 tax refunds amounting to R646 million had already been paid out to tax payers – three times more than the R203 million that was paid out within the same period in 2012.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced the opening of the 2013 tax season on Monday.
In a media briefing at the SARS Edenvale branch, Gordhan said he had targeted to up revenue collection by 9% in the current tax season to ensure that the government borrowed less funds for domestic infrastructure and service delivery spending. - SAnews.gov.za
