South Africa Launches Large Business Center

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

28 October 2019

On October 23, 2019, the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service launched the re-established Large Business Centre, which aims to bring about higher levels of voluntary tax compliance among large taxpayers.

According to SARS, the unit will focus its activities on the following types of taxpayer:

• groups or entities with a turnover greater than ZAR1bn (USD68.3m);
• financial services firms with turnover greater than ZAR500m;
• mining companies with turnover greater than ZAR500m;
• entities or groups of companies with combined total assets greater than ZAR100m;
• multinational companies; and
• Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies.

In addition, the new center will be responsible for tax compliance among ultra-high net worth individuals whose total assets exceed ZAR75m.

Staff at the new unit will include dedicated relationship managers focusing on specific industries and sectors to provide a "one-stop shop" service for taxpayers. Staff will also be trained to deal with complex tax affairs including multiple tax types for taxpayers operating across numerous jurisdictions. As such, a major aim of the center is to clarify taxpayers' tax obligations and improve the efficiency of the assessment, audit, and dispute resolution processes, SARS said.

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