The Tax Ombud’s Office came into effect in the second half of 2013. Recently the Ombud’s first full year annual report was released.

What is the role of the Ombudsman?

The annual report â€" what the stats show

The Ombud’s Office had 6 003 enquiries from taxpayers, of which 

• 1 270 were complaints. 
• 861 were complaints outside the mandate of the Ombud or, were made prematurely, before having exhausted SARS internal compliant procedures first; and
• 409 cases were taken on. 

Only 16% of all complaints were lodged by registered tax practitioners on behalf of taxpayers.

More than 75% of accepted complaints were resolved in the taxpayer’s favour.
This is both good news and bad news. The bad news is there is a lack of awareness by taxpayers as to the Ombud’s role and the SARS internal complaints procedure. One can assume that in many of these cases, all dispute channels with SARS had not been used. Furthermore, it is worrisome that many tax practitioners appear not to be using the Tax Ombud, whether out of ignorance or choice, which could be to the detriment of their clients. 
The resolution of 75% of complaints in the taxpayer’s favour underlines the importance of the Ombud and indicates the Ombud is operating independently of SARS.

The main areas of dispute presented to the Tax Ombud for assistance;

1. Withdrawal of assessment as the prescription period had lapsed. Taxpayers took too long to object to assessments and were not aware they could still reach an agreement with SARS.
2. Delayed refunds. These flowed from incorrect banking information held by SARS or given to SARS, verification audits and system problems at SARS.
3. Identity theft. The victim was a taxpayer whose tax account was used to generate a fraudulent claim which SARS paid out.
4. SARS officials not complying with the stipulated time periods with objections and appeals. The Ombud found there is frequent disregard of these time frames by SARS officials.
5. Outcomes of objections and appeals were not properly implemented.
6. SARS did not respond or help taxpayers.

It would appear from the report that the Ombud is already performing a valuable service for taxpayers. Although the service seems to be slightly under-utilised at this stage, we hope to see an increased use thereof by both taxpayers and tax practitioners in future.