Best Practice: SARS Income Tax Audit 2021
Presenters : Johan Heydenrych
Overview
In the 2021/2022 Budget Speech delivered on 24 February 2021, the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, stated: “We owe a lot of people a lot of money. We must shore up our fiscal position in order to pay back the massive obligations we have incurred over the years.”
The minister also pointed out the following, “SARS has started to deepen its technology, data and machine learning capability. It is also expanding specialised audit and investigative skills in the tax and customs areas to renew its focus on the abuse of transfer pricing, tax base erosion and tax crime.”
Given government’s focus on cash collections aimed at serving the ever-increasing debt burden of the country, one should expect a significant increase in SARS audits and investigations.
The tax practitioner and tax executive has an obligation towards clients and employers to ensure that these audits can be dealt with effectively and efficiently whilst minimising the risk of revised assessments and by eliminating the risk of understatement penalties charged by SARS.
This not to be missed workshop-webinar is relevant for any person who is responsible for ITR14 submissions and responding to SARS audits and requests for information. It will also be insightful for any public officer or director responsible for overall tax governance of a taxpayer.
Workshop-webinar content
The workshop-webinar will consist of the following four aspects:
Section 1
Since September 2018, 15 income tax cases were heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). Of the 15 cases, only three were found in favour of the taxpayer. In this section, we will explore certain high-profile SCA and high court cases and consider whether or not a different approach by the taxpayer (in dealing with the SARS request for information and the SARS audit) could have avoided the cases being referred to the court in the first instance. Cases dealing with prepayments, stock valuations and section 24C will inter alia be discussed.
Section 2
Under section 2, we will consider how a precautionary and anticipatory approach to ITR14 preparation can avoid costly disputes with SARS and minimise the risks of understatement penalties. We will further discuss sound principles of tax risk management and tax governance, which if applied properly, can protect the taxpayer against most understatement penalties.
Section 3
Here we will deal with practical case studies where a strategy for dealing with SARS audits under different scenarios will be discussed in a practical and understandable manner. Participants will benefit from the practical experience built up over 30 years by the presenter in dealing with SARS audits. This is more than “knowing your rights”. This section is about the subjective decisions to be made by the person dealing with SARS audits under a variety of scenarios.
Section 4
Under section 4, we will deal with the future of tax audits with specific reference to increased data analytical capabilities of SARS and reliance on third-party data submissions.
Who should attend?
Tax practitioners, tax accountants, tax managers and tax executives.
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Ensuring Fair and Equitable Taxation: A Conversation with the Office of the Tax Ombud