South African Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Edward Kieswetter has relaunched the group’s large business centre.
Speaking at the launch of the centre in Johannesburg on Wednesday (23 October), Kieswetter said that the unit hill help bring about voluntary compliance amongst corporate South Africa.
Currently, corporate income tax is the third-largest revenue contributor, having brought in 16.6% of the total revenue in the 2018/2019 financial year.
Kieswetter said that the taxpayer segment that the centre focuses on will include:
- Large businesses defined as groups or entities with a turnover greater than R1 billion;
- Companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange;
- Financial services with a turnover greater than R500 million;
- Mining companies with turnover greater than R500 million,
- All entities or groups of companies with a combined total assets value greater than R100 million, as well as multinational companies.
- Ultra High Net-Worth Individuals whose total assets are in excess of R75 Million.
Taxpayers who meet one of these criteria are registered with the SARS Large Business Centre, he said.
Services offered
Kieswetter said that the value proposition offered by the large business centre is to promote voluntary compliance at the lowest cost to the taxpayer and SARS.
He said this will include:
- Dedicated relationship management by industry and sector, ensuring that tax teams allocated to the client has specialised knowledge and understanding of the client’s business;
- A highly skilled and professional team with proficiency on multiple tax types for taxpayers with complex tax portfolios, including those operating in multiple tax jurisdictions. To this end, SARS aims to facilitate clarity of the taxpayer’s obligations and improve efficiency in assessments, audits and dispute resolution processes;
- Centralised management of the taxpayer’s tax compliance requirements across tax types which SARS’ refers to as a ‘One-stop shop’ end-to-end service. This service provides the taxpayer with seamless interaction with SARS for any tax requirement or query the taxpayer may have, through one relationship management team who manages their entire tax portfolio.