On 29 February 2012, the South African Revenue Service
(SARS) issued a notice in Government Gazette No 35090 (Notice No
173) relating to the liability of certain institutions, most
notably banks, to furnish SARS with financial information about
taxpayers.
The notice was issued in terms of s69 of the Income Tax Act, No
58 of 1962, which section has been superseded by s26 of the Tax
Administration Act, No 28 of 2011 (TAA).
In terms of the notice, banks are obliged to furnish financial
information to SARS relating to the period 1 March 2012 to 28
February 2013, being the 2013 tax year for taxpayers who are
natural persons.
Since natural person taxpayers are currently submitting their
returns for the 2013 tax year, it means that SARS will, for the
first time, have such financial information available for purposes
of verifying information submitted in returns, or for other
auditing purposes.