Pretoria - A total of 5.94 million tax returns were received for non-provincial taxpayers, says South African Revenue Service (SARS) Acting Commissioner Jonas Makwakwa.
The announcement follows the tax season coming to an end on Friday.
The 5.94 million submissions received was 11.52 percent higher than in 2014. The number includes individuals, trusts and prior year submissions.
Compliance for taxpayers filing on time exceeded 90 percent for the third consecutive year.
Makwakwa said this was a significant achievement.
“We are proud of the high level of fiscal citizenship demonstrated by taxpayers. Thank you South Africa, this tax Season belongs to the millions of taxpayers that submitted their tax returns on time,” he said.
Of the total of 5.94 million returns submitted by the November 27 deadline:
- 4.2 million returns were from individuals for the 2015 tax year
- 1.69 million were outstanding returns from prior years
- 45 390 were trust returns
- 99.96 percent of returns were filed electronically, either via eFiling representing 51.84 percent, or through electronically assisted filing at a SARS branch or mobile tax unit
- Manual submissions are down to less than 2 000 returns, representing 0.04 percent of total volume
- More than 95 percent of all returns submitted were assessed within 3 seconds and more than 99 percent within 24 hours
In addition, the revenue service paid out 1.82 million refunds to the value of R15 billion - and more than 95 percent of these refunds were paid within 72 hours.
Outstanding return submissions increased with 679 544 returns, representing a growth of 66.43 percent. This increase has been ascribed to the success of the administrative penalty regime.
“It is pleasing that millions of South African citizens agree that meeting their tax obligations is cool. This high level of compliance contributes to nation building and enables the government to deliver services that improve the quality of life of all its citizens,” said Makwakwa.
He encouraged taxpayers who have not yet submitted their returns to do so.