Undue grief caused by Sars’ SMSes ‘sent in error’

I WAS given your e-mail by IOL and wonder what your thoughts are on this…

I completed my tax return some time back and am required to make payment to Sars. The first payment is required in January 2018 and no sooner.

Yesterday I received an SMS from Sars stating that “your account for tax ref no ***** is in arrears, make payment urgently to avoid legal action”.

Today, I received another SMS stating “final demand for tax ref no******. Make payment urgently or legal action will be taken”.

I contacted Sars, only to be told that these are automated SMSes which are sent as a “courtesy reminder”.

I was told I could send them an e-mail indicating I was not happy receiving the SMSes, but that there was nothing they could do.

In my view, the SMSes I received are definitely not a courtesy, but are threatening in nature.

I know that Sars is having trouble collecting revenue and the sending of these messages may result in some ill-informed taxpayers feeling intimidated and actually making payment before they really have to, or can actually afford to.

Surely sending threatening SMSes to taxpayers and consumers is not an acceptable practice and these organisations should be stopped from doing this?

After contacting Sars, I thought it was resolved. Then I got a phone call from someone at Sars and, although they phoned me, the caller insisted I answer their security questions before they would tell me what the so-called “issue was with my tax”.

The reason for the “courtesy” call from Sars was to find out when I would be paying the tax I owed them.

There definitely appears to be a concerted effort on the part of Sars to try to coerce taxpayers into paying before the due dates.

Strangely enough, this call was again followed by an apology SMS, indicating I should ignore the SMSes that I received stating I was in arrears.

I am one unhappy taxpayer. Sheron Pretorius

Sars responded: “On November 2, 2017, SMSes were sent in error to taxpayers indicating “account in arrears” prior to the due payment date. On November 3, 2017, another batch of SMSes was sent in error indicating “final demand” and “legal action”. These SMSes were auto-triggered by Sars’s debt management system. From November 3, apology SMSes, as the taxpayer references, were sent to affected taxpayers. We once again apologise for the inconvenience and alarm that the communiqué caused taxpayers.”