THE DISCREPANCY SMS FROM SARS
In an attempt to enhance its efforts to further simplify tax return filing, SARS has announced earlier this year, that they will assess a significant number of individual taxpayers automatically. We are aware of some messages being sent directly to you from the South African Revenue Services. This message states that there are discrepancies identified between third party data and your last income tax return submitted. Please note that this is a standard message being sent to taxpayers due to a lack of correct information sent to SARS by third parties.
AUTO ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
Some taxpayers may have received communications indicating they will be auto-assessed. The SMS or e-mail communication directs you to eFiling or the SARS MobiApp to either “Accept” or “Edit” the return. We would, however like to request you to not respond to the communications as we will be managing this on your behalf and we need to make sure all the necessary deductions and other items have correctly been assessed before accepting their effort.
NEW SCAMS AND SPOOFING COMMUNICATION
We would like to warn you about a number of new scams and spoofing communications that appear to be from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) or collection agencies claiming to collect outstanding taxes on behalf of the South African Revenue Service (SARS). The latest scam has seen members of the public contacted with false e-mails and personal SMS messages made to look like they were sent from the revenue authority. The revenue authority did warn the public in the beginning of 2020 of these type of fraudulent e-mails and personal SMS messages, aimed at enticing unsuspecting taxpayers to part with personal information such as bank account details.
Examples include e-mails and personal SMS messages that appear to be from returns@sars.co.za or refunds@sars.co.za indicating that taxpayers are eligible to receive tax refunds or that a certain amount is payable to SARS. These e-mails contain links to false forms and fake websites made to look like the real thing, but with the aim of fooling people into entering personal information such as bank account details which criminals then extract and use fraudulently.
When receiving these fraudulent e-mails or personal messages, take note of the following:
- Do not open or respond to e-mails or personal SMS messages from unknown sources and immediately delete it;
- Beware of e-mails and personal SMS messages that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit/debit card information);
- SARS will never request your banking details in any communication that you receive via post,
e-mail, or SMS. However, for the purpose of telephonic engagement and authentication purposes, SARS will verify your personal details. Importantly, SARS will not send you any hyperlinks to other websites – even those of banks;
- Beware of false SMS’s;
- SARS does not send .htm or .html attachments;
- SARS will never ask for your credit card details.
Should you have any additional concerns regarding the information you have received from SARS thus far, please contact us immediately for further assistance or peace of mind.
Office number – 013 655 4100