Pretoria - The Tax Administration Bill is expected to come into operation within the next three months after it was promulgated into law on Wednesday in the Government Gazette.
"Sars's preparations for the implementation of the Act are at an advanced stage and it anticipated that it will come into operation within the next three months," said the South African Revenue Service (Sars) spokesperson, Adrian Lackay.
The Act is intended to simplify and provide greater coherence in South African tax administration law.
"It eliminates duplication, removes redundant requirements and aligns disparate requirements that currently exist in different tax Acts ranging in age from 4 to 63 years old. It creates a single, modern framework for the common administrative provisions of the tax Acts," said Lackay.
He said the Act should ensure better service and lower compliance costs for taxpayers.
"Sars is, however, duty bound to actively pursue tax evaders in order to maintain compliant taxpayers' confidence in the integrity of the tax system," said Lackay.
The Act will see the introduction of a single registration process and number across taxes. This will reduce red tape and streamline the system, and self-assessment of taxes, so taxpayers need not wait for a Sars assessment.
Other key features of the Act is that it will result in greater access to third party data, to underpin Sars initiatives such as the pre-population of individual tax returns and ensure clearer rules on Sars access to information, so tax liabilities can be determined more quickly and accurately.
Lackay said the Act would allow Sars to search business premises without a warrant in narrowly defined situations where the general requirement for a warrant would defeat the object of the search, so Sars can act when tax is at serious risk and time is of the essence.
He added that the Act allowed for the appointment of a Tax Ombud, informed by international experience, to provide taxpayers with a low cost mechanism to address administrative issues that could not be resolved through Sars's normal channels.
"Although the Act provides for a year from its commencement for the appointment of the Tax Ombud, the Minister of Finance announced in his 2012 Budget Speech that the Tax Ombud will be appointed this year," he said.
Two rounds of public consultations were held on the Act while in draft form in 2009 and 2010. It then went through a thorough Parliamentary process following its introduction by the Minister of Finance on 23 June 2011.
