Preliminary outcome of the 2014 tax season

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has again recorded consistent growth in the levels of tax compliance in the country with 5.32 million income tax returns submitted during the 2014 tax season.

Highlights:

94.49% of eligible taxpayers submitted returns on time – an increase from the 91.53% in 2013

A total number of 5.32 million returns were submitted by the deadline of 21 November 2014

99.91 % of returns were submitted electronically

94.98% of returns were assessed within 3 seconds

98.0% of refunds were paid in 72 hours

Over R15.2 billion in tax refunds were paid to 2.1 million taxpayers

1.02 million outstanding returns from previous years were submitted

SARS received R436 million in outstanding penalties from defaulting taxpayers.