JOHANNESBURG, 23 October 2019 – SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter launched the re-established Large Business Centre at its new premises in Woodmead today.  Speaking to chief executives of top companies, Mr Kieswetter presented the value proposition that the re-established Centre will offer to bring about voluntary compliance amongst corporate South Africa.

The SARS Vision 2024, introduced by Mr Kieswetter, is to build a smart modern SARS with unquestionable integrity, which is trusted and admired by all stakeholders, as well as its international peers. 

Currently corporate income tax is the third largest revenue contributor, having brought in 16.6% of the total revenue in the 2018/2019 financial year.

Mr Kieswetter identified that the strategic objectives that will drive the Large Business Centre will be a focus on voluntary compliance, effective and efficient revenue collection, and enhancing service and SARS’ relationship with large business.  In addition, the Large Business Centre is to become a centre of excellence that responds effectively to challenges and requirements presented by this complex taxpayer segment and which is aligned to international tax administration best practice.

The value proposition offered by the large business centre is to promote voluntary compliance at the lowest cost to the taxpayer and SARS, with a three-pronged approach consisting of – 

• Dedicated relationship management by industry and sector, ensuring that tax teams allocated to the client has specialised knowledge and understanding of the client’s business.

• A highly skilled and professional team with proficiency on multiple tax types for taxpayers with complex tax portfolios, including those operating in multiple tax jurisdictions.   To this end, SARS aims to facilitate clarity of the taxpayer’s obligations and improve efficiency in assessments, audits and dispute resolution processes.

• Centralised management of the taxpayer’s tax compliance requirements across tax types which SARS’ refers to as a ‘One-stop shop’ end-to-end service. This service provides the taxpayer with seamless interaction with SARS for any tax requirement or query the taxpayer may have, through one relationship management team who manages their entire tax portfolio.

The taxpayer segment that the Centre focuses on is large businesses defined as groups or entities with a turnover greater than R1 billion; are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; financial services with a turnover greater than R500 million; mining companies with turnover greater than R500 million, all entities or groups of companies with a combined total assets value greater than R100 million, as well as multinational companies.  The other client segment is Ultra High Net-Worth Individuals whose total assets are in excess of R75 Million.  Taxpayers who meet one of these criteria are registered with the SARS Large Business Centre.

The Large Business Centre is situated at the Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Johannesburg.

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