South African Business Taxes: Quickly Check Your SARS Debt

South African businesses can quickly check their SARS debt to find out how much they owe in business taxes.
The "ignorance is bliss" and non-payment era has come to an end for businesses and individuals. SARS now knows that we operate businesses and we exist. And they are using every means possible to get their money if your business owes them. And still, South African business owners believe that they can hide from SARS, or ignore letters and messages from SARS. 
But if you are a business owner and you want to face your tax debt, then SARS has made different platforms available where you can check if you owe them money. In this post, you can find out how to see your debt on the the SARS efiling portal.

Every adult in South Africa has a secret fear: and that is that you might owe money to the South African Revenue Service. For years we could ignore that secret fear and continue running our businesses believing that ignorance is bliss. We also believed that good old SARS would never find us. But that is no more. 

1. Log into efiling and request a statement of account

This option is only available to individuals and businesses with an efiling profile. 

 For PAYE debt:

• Log onto sars efiling with your username and password

• Click on Returns (top menu).

• Click on Search Correspondence (Left side menu).

• Click on Request PAYE Notices (Left side menu).

• Select the year and click continue.

• You will then have access to the statement of account for that specific financial year.

For business tax debt:

For penalties:

Make sure you choose the correct taxpayer and portfolio to see the outstanding debt.  Checking the wrong profile won't reveal business debt. You'll appear compliant as an individual, but the business may still owe SARS.  You need to access the business profile for accurate information.

The name that was used to register the efiling profile should be under portfolio and the company name should be under taxpayer to access the tax information for the business.

2. Check your tax compliance status on filing 

• Log onto the SARS efiling website with your username and password.

• Click on Tax Status on the top menu

• Click on Tax Compliance Status

• Click on My Compliance Report

The name of the business must appear under taxpayer.

Under client details,  the name, registration number and tax number of the business must be displayed.

• Click on debt.

All the tax types that the company is registered for will appear.

• Click on the plus sign next to the tax type.

If the debt is zero, the boxes will be green. It means that all taxes are paid, there is no debt owed and the business is compliant.
If any amount is outstanding for any of the tax types, the box will be red, and the company will not be compliant.

When you click on the plus sign it will also show the amount the company owes. Bear in mind, that even if the business owes five cents to SARS, the box will be red. For it to be green, there must be a zero balance.

These are just two of the options businesses can check if they have any tax debt.
The sooner you try and find out if your business owes any money to SARS, the sooner you can make arrangements to pay off the debt. 

Receiving the letter of final demand is a horrible sinking feeling that leaves you feeling powerless and angry. But whatever you do. don't ignore it. There's always a solution if you want to solve a problem. And once you start working on the solution the problem seems less overwhelming. You don't have to face SARS debt alone.

If you need help with finding out how much money you owe SARS, please feel free to send an email to profitsandbooks@gmail.com

Disclaimer: 

The information provided on this website is of a general nature. It is not a substitute for specific advice in your own circumstances. You are recommended to obtain specific professional advice from a professional accountant before you take any action or refrain from action. 

Whilst we have strived to use reasonable efforts to furnish accurate, complete, reliable, error free and up-to-date information, we do not warrant that it is such. 

The information can only provide an overview of the regulations in force at the date of publication, and no action should be taken without consulting the detailed legislation or seeking professional advice.