Easy! A simple email will ensure SARS pays you ALL your interest
Tax Bulletin | 8 May, 2009 | Hot Topics:
Dear fellow taxpayer,
SARS has finally caught up to the technological age…but unfortunately it hasn’t wholeheartedly embraced the digital concept!
SARS now sends your income tax assessments electronically. That’s the good news. The not-so-great news is that when it comes to Vat refunds, it’ll still send your query letter by registered snail mail. SARS usually does this in the last week before your refund is due, so it can avoid paying interest on a refund not made within 21 business days of receipt of your VAT201 return.
What can you do?
Send SARS your email address and ask that it sends all your Vat correspondence by email to that address. If SARS fails to do so, and your Vat refund is delayed, it will have to pay you interest.
Don’t forget:
If SARS does pay you interest on a delayed Vat refund, check the calculation – interest is payable from the day after the 21-business-day period has ended until you receive the refund. Interest is payable per day and not per business day as some SARS officials believe – I recently saw a vendor being done out of R16 000 this way!
Until next time.
Regards
Peter Franck
Editor in chief
The Practical Vat Handbook
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Editors note
Fulvia Stoltz
Tax Bulletin Editor
The Tax Bulletin is packed full of tax tips, commentary on changes to the tax landscape and is also an interactive tax forum which aims to help you efficiently manage your taxes and avoid all the traps. It is also a handy reminder of the deadlines which taxpayers have to meet.