Question 1 [20 marks]
Client background:
Ester Msimango, a South Africa resident, started working for Bow Transport 6 years ago. Ester failed to submit tax returns for 2020, 2021, and 2022. She only managed to submit her returns in the 2023 (current year) of assessment and has been assessed for a refund by SARS. However, because of outstanding admin penalties Ester cannot be refunded. The penalties that were indicated in assessments by SARS over the past 3 years.
In the 2023 tax season, Ester submitted all of her outstanding returns and requested remittance of penalties. The request was denied by SARS and they did not provide any reason for rejection.
Required:
You are a qualified tax professional, Ester has approached you assist her with her tax affairs, she needs assistance to understand what might be the reasons that her remittance was rejected and what other options that may be available for her to resubmit the dispute. Ester has also asked you to explain in depth the following highlighted wording in her letter from SARS
– Non-compliance penalties
– Remittance of penalties
– Criminal offences relating to non-compliance with tax Acts

Answers to Above Questions on Taxation

Answer 1: 

An analysis of the given case study indicates that the remittance of Ester has been rejected, she is looking at the options to resubmit the dispute. The analysis of the given case indicates that there are many such reasons that lead to the rejection of her remittance, and the most prominent one is the non compliance penalty which has been imposed because of her failure to provide tax returns for multiple years.