The South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced this week that selected offices will be open today (Saturday July 12) to enable you to submit your 2002/03 tax return which should have been in yesterday without incurring any penalties.
However, if you don't get your return in today, from Monday you will start paying a penalty of between R300 and R900 for each return you submit late.
SARS says the concession to allow taxpayers to submit returns today is a result of requests from taxpayers. In the past taxpayers have been granted extensions on request. This has now changed and you will only get an extension if you have a good reason for needing one, for example, if you are out of the country or experiencing a personal tragedy.
Jacob Dlamini, a spokesperson for SARS, says that as a result of SARS's new policy there has been an influx of tax returns submitted in the week leading up to the deadline.
"The Pretoria office attended to 38 295 clients between July 3 and July 9 alone."
Dlamini says SARS offices will be open today between 8am and 12pm in the following centres:
Alberton; Bellville; Benoni; Boksburg; Cape Town; Germiston; Johannesburg; Krugersdorp; Pretoria; Polokwane; Port Elizabeth; Randfontein; Rustenburg; Springs; Sibasa; Umtata and Welkom.
In addition, you can make use of call centres in the Western Cape (0860 121 218) and in KwaZulu-Natal (031 328 6000).
This year SARS launched a Filing Season campaign aimed at educating taxpayers and encouraging compliance. They hope this will result in 90 percent of tax returns being error-free by 2005.