Taxes will be spent wisely, vows Nene
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has promised South Africans that government will spend their hard-earned money wisely.
Nene delivered the keynote address at the official opening of the tax season in Alberton on Monday.
"Our commitment as government is that we will spend it effectively, wisely and make sure that every South African actually benefits out of it,” he said at the South African Revenue Service’s (Sars) offices in Alberton.
Nene’s comments comes amid the suspension of tax boss Tom Moyane and a commission of inquiry into the declining public confidence in the revenue service.
Nene reiterated that bringing stability to Sars is a priority.
“In this regard there are two processes that are underway which is the commission of inquiry into the tax administration and the governance in SARS that have been appointed by the President, which began last week.
“The second is the disciplinary hearing of the SARS commissioner (Moyane) and the process has also been driven by the Presidency and we should allow both to run their course.”
The target for this year’s revenue collection stands at R1,345 trillion with taxpayers being encouraged to file their taxes via e-filing.
Acting Sars commissioner Mark Kingon said tax season is already in full swing.
“As of this morning we have received close to 140 000 returns via e-filing, thus far our contact centre has received close to 4000 phone calls. The group executive responsible for branches tells me they already have 8000 taxpayers, of which they served 7000. One of our branches had over 800 in the queues already. That is quite considerable.”
Tax season will officially conclude on 31 October for non-provisional taxpayers and provisional taxpayers who opt to file at a Sars branch.
Provisional taxpayers, who file via e-filing, will have until end of January to file their returns.