SARS 'TRUSTS' No One

In a recent media release, SARS has upped the ante in its investigations into trusts and their beneficiaries.  The tax authority has identified several beneficiaries of trusts who have not submitted their income tax returns correctly and has threatened that should any such beneficiaries fail to remedy their non-compliance it ‘…will invoke the provisions of the law which may include actions such as raising estimated assessments, imposition of interest and penalties as well as civil and criminal sanctions.’

This is a clear message to trust administrators and trust beneficiaries, alike, to get their affairs in order and the move comes in the wake of SARS’ recent comments that it is expanding its data sources and modernising its systems to ensure increased compliance of these entities.

Trustees are urged to ensure that all trust administration and compliance is up to date, ensuring that trusts are registered for tax, have annual financial statements prepared as well as their annual tax returns submitted timeously. As stated above, failure to do this could result in serious consequences for the trustees.

Taxpayers who are beneficiaries of trusts are urged to ensure that any distributions are reflected in their tax returns and such distributions tie up to those reflected in the trusts returns. Taxpayers are no longer able to plead ignorance in completing their returns and the courts have found that the ultimate duty rests on the taxpayers themselves to submit their returns correctly and on time.

Should you require professional trust administration services, Nolands has built a relationship with SA Prime Trustees. Click here to view SA Prime Trustees service offerings or contact Julian Naderer on juliann@saprime.co.za or Katy Bolton on katyb@saprime.co.za .

Click here to read the full release.