You have diligently completed your tax return on time and to the best of your ability, but the assessment you receive back from SARS reflects a different result from the one you anticipated.

What are your tax rights?

The 1st step is to determine what has given rise to the differences between your tax assessment and the tax assessment reached by SARS. If you have made an error or omission on your tax return, or if you believe SARS has captured your information incorrectly to reach their assessment, you can submit a Request for Correction.

If however your return has been captured correctly, but you disagree with the treatment of amounts by SARS, you must lodge an objection.

The basic stages in the tax assessment dispute-resolution process involve:

1. Submitting an objection, which SARS may allow, in full or partially, or may disallow.
2. You may then appeal against SARS’s decision to disallow any part of the original objection.
3. The appeal can proceed via the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, a hearing by the Tax Board and/or a hearing by the Tax Court.

The appeal process is governed by chapter 9 of the Tax Administration Act (TAA), as well as the rules promulgated under section 103 of the Tax Administration Act as published in the Government Gazette on July 11, 2014.

These provisions and rules set out the rights and obligations of taxpayers and SARS in respect of the time limits within which the objection and appeal procedure must take place. The time period is given in business days, which are defined in a specific way for the purposes of the dispute-resolution process.

Assistance with Business tax and personal tax dispute resolutions is what The Accounting Team does best; offering the best tax advice. We are the first to know about any changes in the business tax statutory and help you make your tax decisions according to Government requirements.