Ziphozonke Lushaba
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The only certainties in life are death and taxes, they say, and on Friday morning South Africans understood that only too well as they queued in their thousands at SA Revenue Service’s offices around the country to file their returns.
With the 4pm deadline looming for pen-pushers and midnight Friday for computer jockeys filing by e-filing, last-minute taxpayers lined up to test the patience of Sars staff as they hoped to have their tax returns finalised before closing time.
At the Sars office in the city, the long line of taxpayers waiting patiently for opening time stretched around the building. Most people stood with folders, files, backpacks and envelopes as they waited to present their documents.
Fortunately, the sunny weather helped to make the chore just that bit more bearable.
At least, that was how a smiling and patient Fred Farmer saw it. The information technology security specialist from Thornton was philosophical about the ordeal and admitted he could have done something about his tax returns earlier.
“I have no real excuse to explain why I waited till the last moment,” he said. “I could have registered for e-filing as easy as that, but you know what it’s like - before you know it, time has caught up with you. I’ve been busy and when you get busy, you tend to forget about things like this until suddenly you realise the date and the time and you find you have to rush to get something done.”
Andile Tsholi of Gugulethu tried to see it the same way.
“Yes, the time does fly and then you see you’ve got to rush to get it done,” he said. “You know you can register on-line or come do it earlier, but during the year you sort of lack the motivation to take the necessary steps.”
One man who preferred not to be named said he had registered for e-filing but there had been a technical issue, after which Sars had erased his e-filing account.
Several other people reported some or other technical problem. Others had arrived to register for the first time.
A man who said he worked for the City was visibly irritated by having to queue. “I am very busy, this wastes my time. It’s the first time I’ve had to do this.”
A Sars official said more people were queueing on Friday than this time last year but that the queue was “more friendly and moving quicker”. - Cape Argus