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Is the Office of the Tax Ombud doing its job?
- 11 December 2018
- Tax Administration
- Jessica Carr
Important:
This article is based on tax law for the tax year ending 28 February 2019.
Author: Jessica Carr
Since its establishment in October 2013, under Section 15 of the Tax Administration Act (28/2011) the Office of the Tax Ombud (OTO) has been expected to enhance South Africa's tax administration system.
Following the lead of international best practices, the South African OTO is modelled on the tax ombud systems of Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom and is required to promote its mandate as set out in Section 16 of the Tax Administration Act. The OTO must review and address taxpayer complaints, be they service-related, procedural or administrative. The OTO may also, in terms of its Tax Administration Act mandate, be requested by the finance minister to review any systemic and emerging issues related to the South African tax system. As the current tax ombud, retired Judge President of the Gauteng High Court, Bernard Ngoepe mentioned in his foreword to the report: "many people in [South Africa] do not know their rights… so, in establishing an office like this, it is critical to educate them about their rights as taxpayers". According to the strategic overview in the report, the OTO's conduct must always be aligned with the core values of accountability, independence, efficiency, fairness and confidentiality.
Prior to the establishment of the OTO, in circumstances where taxpayers had exhausted all of their options in the South African Revenue Service's (SARS) usual complaints channels, no alternative forms of independent redress were available. As the tax ombud states in the foreword to the OTO report:
the first [milestone] was the very act of establishing this institution. Remember, there was no Tax Ombud before then and yet people felt they had many legitimate questions about SARS and that an independent office was needed to assist them in regard to their complaints.
He continues to confirm that: "a taxpayer must have the comfort of knowing that if SARS does not treat them well, there is somewhere else they can go to complain."
The tax ombud's annual report covers the performance of all aspects of the OTO's role. It includes a number of statistics pertaining to issues brought to the attention of the tax ombud during the period and provides insights from the tax ombud by way of a foreword, as well as an overview of the OTO's activities as provided by the OTO's CEO, Hanyana Eric Mkhawane.
The report highlights both the achievements and the challenges of the OTO and provides strategic and situational analyses and recommendations. This year's report begins with a summary indicating that, of 17,920 contacts (ie, taxpayer engagements in the form of queries, comments or complaints) received by the OTO, 3,652 of these were complaints and less than half of these complaints were finalised. Most of the complaints received pertained to refunds owing to the taxpayer, followed closely by dispute resolution complaints. Only 20% of complaints related to ancillary issues such as assessments, debt management and verification.
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This article first appeared on internationallawoffice.com.