South African Revenue Service [SARS]
Reviews and Complaints

ME NGOVENI Assist me please. I have resigned from SAPS 28 February 2023 and on the 06 march 2023 I received a message from gepf that sars declined directives because I have two accounts with them and I went to sars Orlando soweto on the 07 March 2023 to fix the problem and they booked appointment for me that I must come on the 27March 2023 and on the 27march 2023 a female employee of sars who helped me gave me a form called notice of registration to submit to gepf and I submitted it to gepf and after some few days gepf send me a text message informing that sars declined directives I must go to sars again to the same problem and I went to sars they gave me the same notice of registration form and resubmitted it to gepf and again they send me the same message that sars declined directives due to the same problem iam confused because everytime im given the same thing and they are always declining my children need to go to school I don't have money to pay for their school transport and I must buy them food too and pay my bills

This is Terrance khutso Setale I have been working for 10 months at SARS from January 2022 till October 2022 which the last time I was working was 2018. on the 1st of December 2022 I applied for uif benefits at malelane labour department. The deduction of my ui per month for my salary was R329.70. so on the 24th of January 2023 I went to sign for the payment of my uif which to my surprise I was told I will get R4337 once off, of which I received on the 30th of January 2023. what I do not understand is this money is different from what my colleagues have received of which they also lastly worked 2018. I have tried calling the head office and have tried calling the malelane labour department of which is no use. they ended up not picking up my calls. because I wanted to know if they had been a mistake or I still have to go sign for another payment it makes no sense to me of the money I got and the money that was deducted. Can you please try to look at what is happening or try to resolve the issue and get back to me.

(Email address: [protected]@gmail.com)

I have submitted my new banking details, home and postal address 5 times to SARS Doringkloof.With my filing and on 02-06-2017 case number [protected] (Hazel), 17-07-2017 case number [protected] (Gertrude), on [protected] case number [protected] and by e-mail on 1 September 2017 case number [protected].

They keep on depositing the money they own me into my old Standard Bank account instead of my new Coptic account.The more I told them that the old account has been closed the less they understand.The last time I was with a se
nor lady with classes and told me that have two accounts.The more I told her that I have only an account with Coptic Bank, the more she told me that the computer shows I have two accounts.

The SARS personal needs training like the Capitec Banking personal.They are absolutely excelent.

SARS has a very strict attitude towards the South African citizens to comply to what they expect, going as far as to add interest rates to owing amounts or to add penalty fees towards your name, if you ever was to owe towards SARS.
Yet, it is funny that SARS can breach what is to be expected by them, and breach the set procedure time periods that the citizens should expect them to process money owing towards you.

Now my question here would be like for example in this case money legally owed towards me by SARS, whom has failed to pay this amount to my attention has to be contributed to funds for the interest of the health of a minor.
Yet, this Government institute neglects to process the amounts after 21 working days.
Will SARS be liable for any loss of life if due to the fact that minor did not receive the medical attention needed due to their negligence to pay out amounts owing.
Will SARS be liable for any penalty fees like citizens has to be if they do not comply?
Will SARS pay out interest rates on money owing, that are being withheld?

Just a question is SARS avoiding to pay out due to amount being in arrears?

Ref [protected]

I went for my first tax return 19.11.2016, i was told that my return would be paid out after 31 days, rvennthough legally it was supposed to be 21 days, when i called the contact center i was told that my documents were only submitted on 21.12.2016! I argued with the women on the other side of the line because of the delay, she then told me that my return would reflect in my bank account after 2weeks, it is now 2 days later and i still did not recieve a single cent! I am highly frustrated as i depended on this money to carry me through January as I am unemployed! Why do we have to wait for our own money that we worked for?

Hi,

I submitted ITR12 thru efiling for 2014 and got the assessment.
all the verification was done and support documents were provided to SARS. but still the money was not refunded for the last one year..
It is so difficult to follow with SARS customer care over the phone explaining the situation

Regards
SF

Documents submitted via e filing -selected for verification and required documents submitted on the 28/07/2015-advised 30 working days for refund to be processed, that timeframe has lapsed and still no refund, email complaint sent to sars also not attended except for an automated response indicating a timeframe of 21 working days -The call centre have indicated an escalation will be submitted to find out what the delay may be until then I must remain patient

The service from the call centre is poor-'its not my problem' attitude is very prevalent, and we can only act if...why not be assertive and get a response to avoid repeat call backs ?

Sars processors how long can it take for a document to be verified -30 working days is ample time yet that deadline was not met ?

I submitted my tax on the 1 july 2015 via efiling.. All was finalised on the same day. I called sars and the told me my refund will reflect in 48 hrs. When this did not happen, I called them on the 3rd july. Again, they again said all is in order and should reflect in another 48 hrs.. I called them again today 8th july. They said 1 - 2 days.. This is absolute madness. All my paper work is in order - no audit, no verification but still waiting. If I owed them money and I did the same, ill have penalties for days. Extremely frustrated on money that is due to me. I did my tax.. On time and honestly. And this is what one gets ! Bs

SARS has not paid out what is owed to me. Should I have been the one owing them. They'd be harrasin g me sooo much. I submitted my tax return on Wednesday. They have not paid the money in my account today still! The agent who assisted me promised me that by Friday I'd be paid but NOTHING to date! I want my money! Ref * [protected]

SARS seems to be unable to assist me after I sent an e-mail to them requesting their help to gain access to my e-filing from Topaz Accounting. I paid Topaz Accounting invoice in November 2013 already, but due to SARS or Topaz Accounting not releasing the e-filing to Frits Beyer Accountants, since only Topaz Accounting has the login details & password that they will not give or release, the trust taxes that were due the end of January 2014 were not submitted for [protected] due to Topaz Accounting or SARS delay. I do not know if Topaz Accounting submitted my taxes [protected]. Both tell me I am responsible to ensure my taxes are submitted to SARS, but how must I do this when my e-filing is not been released so taxes can be submitted? How am I responsible or why will I be held liable for late tax returns due to not having my e-filing released to me by either SARS or Topaz Accounting, since they can not assist me to tell me where the problem or issue is so it can be resolved.

What a funny little place they just keep on contredicting them self have been struggling 3 months to get my refund back now all off a sudden they say that they are doing a risk assesment ...and the best is the turn around time is 3-12 months ...he he he this is lovely country we stay in SARS will sort you out if you owe them money instruct your employer to deduct the money from your salary but no no when they owe you money shutp up wait call the call centre hold for 40 min get numerous case numbers and no one can tell you what is the reason for the risk assesment SA Goverment you are pathetic !

To cut a long story short I used to own a company which I had to close as it wasn't making money. SARS has recently come back to me and says I owe them 20 k. Unfortunately I don't have that sun of money so wanted to arrange a payment plan. What a nightmare. I have been shunted between various call centres with no success. I would like to pay off this debt but it seems like SARS would prefer this not to be the case. If this isn't resolved soon then I'm going to not even bother.

Went to sars umtata on the 24th of december to submit my banking details and to ask them to process my 2004 assessment as I could not get a refund because it needed to be done by my branch. All was well and the person who attedend me was very helpful, but they could'nt process my 2004 assessment because they needed and irp5 and the guy gave me all the details, and I contacted the company concerned who were unable to help because the company was under new management and there were no records. Called sars-umtata and explained the matter to them because someway or another they have dealt with scenarios like mine before and the lady who attended me said he does not know what to do and could not give me anyone who can help. I am sitting with this problem now because I will not get my refund because of the irp5 that I knew nothing about and was not even aware of the fact that 711-friendly grocer submitted an irp5 to sars as they ' paid me ' a lump sum of money. I don't know where this country's going.

As i'm typing this, i'm still waiting for christopher at the sars call centre to get a manager on the line. I've been on hold for 32minutes and 47 seconds now and feel that by the time i'm done typing this, i'll still be waiting. I filed my tax return in november last year at the randburg tax office. I was told that due to a systems problem, they could not capture my banking details - odd I thought, as they paid my retun into my bank account the previous year - but I accepted it anyway and returned a week later with a bank statement that they asked me to provide. Now, being that it was their error that caused this situation, I assumed that it should be corrected in little or no time. I was wrong. After calling the call centre about 8 times to ask them to expidite the payment, I was told that the matter would be escalated to have the payment made sooner that the turn around time of 21 days - the last time I spoke to a 'manager' by the name of alvin, who assured me that that this would be escalated. By the end of that call I had resigned myself to the fact that absolutely no effort would be made to help me and that I should just wait the 21 days. Which I now have ! With no payment !

I would like to complain about sars, I faxed documents to sars to get a tax number for my fiance' in september 11 2009, up until now I have not yet recieved the tax number, I have called their contact centers and have recieved no grace from them, yesterday I called in again to see whether anything is on the system, the lady that I spoke to didnt give me her name, but was rude and arrogant and didnt care about my problem, she had blatant disregard for the fact that I was a customer, she refused to put me through to a supervisor and had told me she will hold on and waste my time&she didnt care, I then released the call and phoned in again, I then spoke to mrs ali the team leader in cape town who was helpful and sympathetic and she advised I should fax the docs again, I did so and to my suprise nothing was done because the id copy was not clear enough, I waited close to two months for that answer. Now have to go to a branch which will take another 10 working days, for me to get the tax number. I am very upset at the pathetic service I got from sars, just because they are a government company doesnt mean that they can treat their customers like dirt. Its pathetic.

I submitted my tax return in person at newlands sars branch, pretoria in november 2008. Waited for 2 hours in line-up. When it was my turn to see official, the power went off & they could not tell us how long it will be off. Official who helped us promised he would submit our return the moment the power is back. Needless to say it never happened. I left for canada in dec 2008 on a work contract and tried to get information from sars. Cannot reach anyone and have been kept on hold for more than 40 minutes at a time. There were many efforts since decembe2008-august 2009 to get somebody at sars to respond. At last there was reply from sars requesting supporting documents with a deadline. It was send to my previous postal address after I changed my address, my 2008 retun had my new address on and I confirmed with the official where I submitted my return to make sure they have the new address. I scanned the requested documents, e-mailed to my daughter who gave it in at sars newlands. Now they say it will take 1 year to finalize return. They owe me money. Sars should pay interest if they don't pay your money back in time. Very bad service. Wonder where my 2009 return is. Get no response.

I gave my filled in it77 form to sars pta branch on the 3rd of july. I have phoned the call centre waiting in que very patiantly 4 times now! Everytime I speak to someone they promise me that my forms have been processed but it just has to be finalized? How long can that take? The last lady I spoke to assured me it would be put into finalisation asap and that they would send me an email with my tax number!? This was 3 weeks ago! No response no email nothing! Everytime I phoned I get a refrence number! My most recent refrence number is [protected]. But that does not help at all! This is completely unexceptable...