How can we go about getting SARS to reverse old assessments of a client when the debt is 5 years and older? It has come to our attention that a client of ours, a body corporate, has outstanding debt owing to SARS on their Income Tax account. It pertains t
Important:
This answer is based on tax law for the year ending 28 February 2020.
Answer:
You mention that the tax debt arose from assessments pertaining to the 2008 and 2009 tax assessments. The correct way was to request a correction of the returns or to object to the assessments. Depending on when the assessments were issued, it may well be that this is more than three years after the date of the original assessment and SARS would not be able to make or issue ‘revised’ assessments – see section 99 of the Tax Administration Act.
You mention that the original returns were ‘completed and filed incorrectly’. If this constitutes non-disclosure of material facts, section 99(1) would not apply.
We submit that the only option would be to request a reduced assessment, in both instances, under section 93(1)(e) of the Act. That requires a processing error by SARS or a return fraudulently submitted and is not caught by the prescription period.