Author: admin_kmos

Section 250 (TAA) – Authentication of documents

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250.    Authentication of documents

 

(1)     A form, notice, demand or other document issued or given by or on behalf of SARS or a SARS official under a tax Act is sufficiently authenticated if the name of SARS or the name or official designation of the SARS official is stamped or printed on it.

 

(2)     A return made or purporting to be made or signed by or on behalf of a person is regarded as duly made and signed by the person affected unless the person proves that the return was not made or signed by the person or on the person’s behalf.

 

(3)     Subsection (2) applies to other documents submitted to SARS by or on behalf of a person.

Section 249 (TAA) – Default in appointing public officer or address for notices or documents

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249.    Default in appointing public officer or address for notices or documents

(1)     No appointment is deemed to have been made under section 246(2) until notice thereof specifying the name of the public officer and an address for service or delivery of notices and documents has been given to SARS.

(2)     A company must-

(a)     keep the office of public officer constantly filled and must at all times maintain a place for the service or delivery of notices in the Republic; and

[Paragraph (a) substituted by section 24 of Act 4 of 2026]

(b)     notify SARS of every change of public officer or the place for the service or delivery of notices within 21 business days of the change taking effect.

Section 248 (TAA) – Public officer in event of liquidation, winding-up or business rescue

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248.    Public officer in event of liquidation, winding-up or business rescue

 

(1)     In the event of a company referred to in section 246(1) being placed in voluntary or compulsory liquidation, the liquidator or liquidators duly appointed are required to exercise in respect of the company all the functions and assume all the responsibilities of a public officer under a tax Act during the continuance of the liquidation.

 

(2)     In the event of a company referred to in section 246(1) being subject to a business rescue plan referred to in Part D of Chapter 6 of the “Companies Act”, the business rescue practitioner as defined in that Chapter is required to exercise, in respect of the company, all the functions and assume all the responsibilities of a public officer under a tax Act for the period that the company is subject to the business rescue plan.

Section 247 (TAA) – Company address for notices and documents

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247.    Company address for notices and documents

 

(1)     SARS may serve, deliver or send the company a notice or other document provided for under a tax Act to an address provided by the company as referred to in section 23 or 249.

[Subsection (1) substituted by section 32(a) of Act 43 of 2024 and by section 23 of Act 4 of 2026]

 

(2)     Every notice, process, or proceeding which under a tax Act may be given to, served upon or taken against a company referred to in section 246(1), may be given to, served upon, or taken against its public officer.

[Subsection (2) substituted by section 32(b) of Act 43 of 2024]

Section 246 (TAA) – Public officers of companies

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246.    Public officers of companies

(1)     Every company carrying on business or having an office in the Republic must at all times be represented by an individual residing in the Republic.

(2)     The individual representative under subsection (1) must be-

(a)     a person who is a senior official of the company or, if no senior official resides in the Republic, another suitable person approved by SARS;

(b)     appointed by the company or by an agent or legal practitioner who has authority to appoint such a representative for the purposes of a tax Act; and

(c)     called the public officer of the company.

[Subsection (2) amended by section 84(a) of Act 39 of 2013 and by section 45 of Act 33 of 2019 and substituted by section 31(a) of Act 43 of 2024]

(3)     If a public officer is not appointed as required under this section, the public officer is regarded to be-

(a)     the first person who is eligible to represent the company as public officer, in the following order of priority:

(i)      Managing director or equivalent;

(ii)     financial director or equivalent;

(iii)    company secretary;

(iv)    director or prescribed officer who has the largest shareholding in the company;

(v)     director or prescribed officer who has held office for the longest period of time; and

(vi)    a senior employee of the company in order of the company’s reporting hierarchy; or

(b)     any suitable person that SARS designates for that purpose.

[Subsection (3) substituted by section 84(b) of Act 39 of 2013 and by section 31(b) of Act 43 of 2024]

(4)     A company that has not appointed a public officer is subject to a tax Act as if a tax Act did not require the public officer to be appointed.

(5)     A public officer is responsible for all acts, matters, or things that the public officer’s company must do under a tax Act, and in case of default, the public officer is subject to penalties for the company’s defaults.

(6)     A public officer’s company is regarded as having done everything done by the public officer in the officer’s representative capacity.

(7)     The company is regarded as not having appointed a public officer if the person appointed as public officer is-

(a)     not eligible, in terms of subsection (2) or (8), to represent the company as public officer; or

(b)     notified by SARS that he or she is not considered suitable to represent the company as public officer,

and must, within 21 business days of the date on which paragraph (a) or (b) becomes applicable, notify SARS, in writing, of the newly appointed public officer.

[Subsection (7) substituted by section 31(c) of Act 43 of 2024]

(8)     A person who is disqualified in terms of section 6 of the Trust Property Control Act, 1988 (Act 57 of 1988), section 25A of the Nonprofit Organisations Act, 1997 (Act 71 of 1997), or section 69 of the Companies Act, 2008 (Act 78 of 2008), may not be appointed as a public officer under this section

[Subsection (8) added by section 30 of Act 18 of 2023]

Section 245 (TAA) – Power of Minister to determine date for submission of returns and payment of tax

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245.    Power of Minister to determine date for submission of returns and payment of tax

 

(1)     Despite any other provision of a tax Act, if the date for the submission of a return or the payment of tax is the last day of the financial year of the Government, the Minister may by public notice prescribe any other date for submission of the return and payment of the tax, which date must not fall on a day more than two business days prior to the last day of that year.

 

(2)     The notice contemplated in subsection (1) must be published at least 21 business days prior to the date so prescribed by the Minister.

Section 244 (TAA) – Deadlines

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244.    Deadlines

 

(1)     If-

 

(a)     a day notified by SARS or specified in a tax Act for payment, submission or other action; or

 

(b)     the last day of a period within which payment, submission or other action under a tax Act must be made,

 

falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the action must be done not later than the last business day before the Saturday, Sunday or public holiday.

 

(2)     The Commissioner may prescribe the time of day by which a payment, submission or other action must be done, and if it is done after that time on the day it is regarded as done on the first business day following the specified day.

 

(3)     If SARS is authorised to extend a deadline, the application for extension must be submitted to SARS in the prescribed form before the deadline expires unless-

 

(a)     reasonable grounds exist for the delay and the application is submitted within 21 business days of the deadline; or

 

(b)     the delay is due to a circumstance referred to in section 218(2)(a) to (e) or any other circumstance of analogous seriousness and the application is submitted within three years of the deadline.

Section 243 (TAA) – Complaint considered by controlling body

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243.    Complaint considered by controlling body

 

(1)     The complaint is to be considered by the ‘controlling body’ according to its rules.

 

(2)     A hearing of the matter where details of a person’s tax affairs will be disclosed, may be attended only by persons whose attendance, in the opinion of the ‘controlling body’, is necessary for the proper consideration of the complaint.

 

(3)     The ‘controlling body’ and its members must preserve secrecy in regard to the information as to the affairs of a person as may be conveyed to them by SARS or as may otherwise come to their notice in the investigation of the complaint and must not communicate the information to a person other than the person concerned or the person against whom the complaint is lodged, unless the disclosure of the information is ordered by a competent court of law.

Section 242 (TAA) – Disclosure of information regarding complaint and remedies of taxpayer

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242.    Disclosure of information regarding complaint and remedies of taxpayer

 

(1)     Despite section 69, the senior SARS official lodging a complaint under section 241 may disclose the taxpayer information as in the opinion of the official is necessary to lay before the ‘controlling body’ to which the complaint is made.

 

(2)     Before a complaint is lodged or information is disclosed, SARS must deliver to the taxpayer concerned and the person against whom the complaint is to be made notification of the intended complaint and information to be disclosed.

 

(3)     The taxpayer or that person may, within 21 business days after the date of the notification, lodge with SARS an objection to the lodging of the complaint or disclosure of the information.

 

(4)     If on the expiry of that period of 21 business days no objection has been lodged or, if an objection has been lodged and SARS is not satisfied that the objection should be sustained, a senior SARS official may thereupon lodge the complaint as referred to in section 241.