Technology, Solutions and Innovations
Tax Practitioners: Are You Still Manual For Provisional Tax?
- MANUAL No tax system in use at all. All SARS processing happens on the e Filing web site. You may be using a spreadsheet and email system
- BACK OFFICE SKY TAX system with full interaction with SARS.
We will all agree that provisional tax law has become very complicated and is prone to risk and errors. There is no way that most of your clients will be able to handle it properly, understanding all the laws and the penalties, especially the understatement laws. I am going to paint the picture for each of the above scenarios.
| 1. No Tax system in use. Use the e Filing website only | 2. Use Back Office System in full interaction with SARS |
| Each taxpayer’s IRP6 to be retrieved one at a time which is very time consuming as there is no bulk retrieval. | Globally retrieve IRP6’s from SARS into the Sky Tax system for processing. |
| Calculate one provisional taxpayer at a time on the e-Filing website. Time consuming as you have to access each taxpayer individually and make the changes individually. There is no global processing option. | Calculate provisional tax globally for all provisional tax types in minutes based on basic amount or last assessment. (the Sky Tax system downloads assessments automatically everyday) |
| Check the figures being used against a manual tax file. Time consuming and impossible in a larger database. | Not necessary all automatic as Sky Tax produces a difference report. Shows the difference between what SARS says and the last assessment. All the information you need on the system all on one screen. |
| No quick method for checking the difference between SARS IRP6 figures and the correct basic amount figure. | Producing the difference report is an automatic function and will highlight the differences. |
| Medical credits have to be calculated manually. | The Sky Tax system will pull in the first part of the medical credits based on the last tax calculation taking the current rates into account as well as for company Turnover figures. |
| No method of communication with clients. This is a manual very time-consuming method and has to be done one by one on an email system outside the SARS system. | Communication with clients is automatic with forms and letters created automatically being emailed to taxpayers in bulk. With digital signatures clients can confirm their provisional tax submission automatically. |
| There is no method to track and control the status of a PT return like client confirmation unless a manual or spreadsheet is kept. This is very time consuming. | Ability to track and control the status automatically by making use of digital signatures. |
| E-file IRP6 on the e filing website client by client one at a time which is very time consuming. | E-file IRP6 from Sky Tax in bulk. |
| Check Statement of Account on the e-Filing website client by client manually. | Automatically download the SOA and use filters to see what is wrong and that the client has paid. |
SARS loads the basic amounts about 60 days prior to the payment date. The practitioner will never know if they miss an email or SMS about the assessments from SARS. With the Sky Tax, the assessments are loaded daily directly from SARS and all that the practitioner has to do is look at the assessments record to decide which figures are going to be used by comparing it with the current provisional tax status. In a manual system this would have to be checked manually. On a large database this is almost impossible. By not being connected with an integrated tax system with SARS, Tax Practitioners are doing their clients a great disservice.
The communication aspect is automatic and in bulk, the ability to send bulk emails and make use of digital signatures will save an inordinate amount of time as opposed to one at a time.
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