Unfair and Unjust Treatment by SARS

MRS DOREEN LOUIS I.D.-*** AGE-66 YEARS INCOME TAX NO.-*** CELL NO.-***

Good day sir/madam I write this letter with a heavy heart and feel that I have been unfairly treated by SARS. This is due to measures that were beyond my control nor did I have any knowledge that I had not submitted in the way that the system is designed. I have remained a loyal, honest and law abiding citizen my entire life and never broken a law so it is with astonishment and amazement that today I feel like a ********. Firstly, I am a widow and mother of four children. My husband passed away in January 1981 and I had to grow my children up on my own. I was employed as a nurse and my deceased husband’s previous employment gave me a widows pension which although was not much, helped me to manage my day-to-day expenses over the years. The widows pension at the time was too low of an amount (according to SARS) to be taxable, whilst my monthly salary as a nurse was taxed accordingly. The issue arose in 2016 when it was brought to my knowledge by SARS that the widows pension was now of a taxable amount and not only was I supposed to be pushed to a higher tax bracket but I was now in arrears to SARS. They made me feel as if I had purposely been avoiding this ‘higher tax bracket” and yet the truth of the matter is I had no knowledge whatsoever that my salary and the pension should have been taxed together and not separately. The fact that the pension had a tax deduction, I thought was sufficient. This is due to the fact that prior to 2016, upon submission of tax forms, I was assured by SARS officials that everything was in order, hence nothing was required of me by SARS in spite of queries which I had concerning my taxation status. SARS then advised me to pay R3000 (three thousand rand) monthly, which was deducted from my salary for 3 years (June 2016 to June 2019) whilst this situation was being “corrected” so “there would not be a recurrence”. In February 2019, I app**** for a compromise via Ms. Storebeck who requested me to pay a minimum of R16 000 (sixteen thousand rand) as a compromise amount and said that she would follow up with me to confirm acceptance of this figure with the committee. For the month of March 2019 an amount of R16 000 (sixteen thousand rand) was deducted from my salary without my final approval nor any explanation to date. I did not receive any more communication from Ms. Storebeck in spite of numerous efforts (emails and phone calls) that were made, as I was not able to take time off from work frequently to personally go into SARS. I continued paying my taxes and never heard from Ms. Storebeck again. I am currently on full retirement and have no earnings to continue paying this debt. I am financially exhausted. The little I have is for my livelihood and basic human needs and have a young son and 2 grandchildren I am taking care of. I feel that had I received timeous and proper information and assistance from SARS officials, this problem would not have existed. On numerous occasions, I was sent back and forth without resolutions when making enquiries on how to work around this debt and feel that SARS is definitely partially to blame and should take responsibility according to the code of ethics. As a pensioner I do not have the capacity to continue with this battle let alone the exorbitant payments. I am hoping that SARS can reassess this situation as for over 40years I have always paid my taxes and planned to one day retire with peace of mind. SARS has now taken complete advantage of the situation and withdrawn my entire retirement annuity pension of over R152 000 (one hundred and fifty two thousand rand) which I spent many years accumulating along with payments amounting to R125 000(one hundred and twenty five thousand rand) in payments and I really do not know where to go to from here.

Please HELP!!

Yours sincerely Doreen Louis