BOGUS SARS

I lost income two months before my bonus of about (R40K) which was an additional full monthly salary without tax (according to my voluntary arrangement).

HR *******ly decided not pay my bonus which I was entitled to although it was supposed to be 10/12 of R40K (R33K); plus salary increments paid to every employee. That was going to make a total of about R37K.

Luckily SARS e-filing picked it up when I received an auto return form which said SARS owes me R37K. It was good news I expected during such trying times without income (being a family man).

However SARS started to come up with its tactics. They said I should submit all documents to which I indicated that the only document was IRP5 which the employer did not give me. The form came pre-populated and I submitted without alterations as everything was correct and some of the information were even greyed (couldn't be altered).

They then said they will revert after 21 days of investigations. 21 days passed and I enquired without proper response except for automated acknowledgement of receipt of enquiry. I kept on enquiring until after about 40 days, they paid about R22K without explanation of what transpired with the rest (+R37K - R22K = R15K) except for about R6K which I owed them.

Even today, I don't know what happened to the money (R15K - R6K = R9K). I thought government institutions can never cheat/rob anyone especially SARS until this year of 2023.

My advice is to confirm calculations every time. The SARS system can be manually manipulated.