Pretoria - Tax defaulters who want to be granted relief from penalties and interest have until month end to voluntarily disclose their outstanding tax affairs, says the South African Revenue Service (SARS).
The Voluntary Disclosure Programme (VDP) for relief will close on 31 October.
The submission of inaccurate, incomplete information or failure to submit information to the revenue service for any tax type that SARS administers forms part of the range of tax defaults.
"The aim of the VDP is to encourage applicants to disclose their tax defaults and to give them the opportunity to regularise their tax affairs. SARS wants to emphasise that the current VDP programme is a unique opportunity for defaulting taxpayers and SARS wants to encourage such taxpayers to use the remaining window period available to them," said the revenue service.
The programme allows for entities and individuals to make full and voluntary disclosure of any tax default that occurred prior to 17 February 2010.
By last Friday, SARS had received 5 755 VDP applications, an increase of 686 from the end of September. Of the received VDP applications, 67% represented Corporate Income Tax, 20% represented VAT, 10% represented Personal Income Tax and 3% represented other taxes.
Relief will be granted to a defaulting taxpayer if their disclosure is complete and made in the prescribed form and manner and if the revenue service was not aware of the default, which must have occurred earlier to 17 February 2010.
Relief will also be granted if a penalty or additional tax would have been imposed had SARS discovered the default in the normal course of business.
All tax types administered by SARS qualify under the programme, with administrative penalties being excluded.
Prospective applicants can request application forms when visiting any SARS branch; they can also submit an application via eFiling.
