We found the following on the SARS website:
Analysis shows that the compliance of tax practitioners is low. For example, tax practitioners owe more than R260 million to SARS in their own personal capacities. Furthermore, tax practitioners who are not registered with a professional body have worse compliance levels than those that are. For example, the average debt per case for a non-registered tax practitioner is four times higher than for those who are registered. In order to minimise the compliance issues currently being experienced in this area, we will introduce legislative amendments which will compel all practitioners registered with SARS to belong to a professional organisation. We also aim to develop an accreditation/preferred status scheme that will acknowledge the low risk practitioners, reframe tax practitioners as ‘ethical go-betweens’ between SARS and the taxpayer and pursue automation of typical queries that are frequently received from tax practitioners.
As pointed out last week, you have to register as a practitioner with SARS, AND be a member of an industry body. We list below the examples of such bodies provided in the Business Day article, and suggest you Google the ones you think you may want to apply to.
- Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors
- South African Legal Practice Council
- Institute for Tax Practitioners
- Institute for Chartered Accountants or
- Institute of Professional Accountants.
To register with SARS, go to the tax practitioners page.
