Page 621 - Juta's Indirect Tax

SARS Language Policy
LANGUAGE POLICY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE PUBLISHED IN TERMS OF SECTION 4(2)(h) OF THE USE OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT, 2012 (ACT 12 OF 2012)
General Notice 1171 of 2015 published in Government Gazette 394439 of 23 November 2015
In terms of section 4(2)(h) of the Use of Of cial Languages Act, 2012 (Act 12 of 2012), I, Thomas Swabihi Moyane, Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service, hereby publish the Language Policy of the South African Revenue Service (SARS), as adopted on 13 May 2015, in the Schedule hereto.
TS MONYANE
COMMISSIONER FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
SCHEDULE
LANGUAGE POLICY OF SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
1. PREAMBLE
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as “the Constitution”) provides for 11 of cial languages; recognises the diminished use and status of indigenous languages and requires the State to take practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of indigenous languages. The Constitution further requires all of cial languages to enjoy parity of esteem and to be treated equitably.
To this end, the Use of Of cial Languages Act, 2012 (Act No. 12 of 2012) (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) has been assented to, inter alia, –
• to provide for the regulation and monitoring of the use of of cial languages by national government for government
purposes;
• to require the adoption of a language policy by a national department, national public entity and national public
enterprise;
• and to provide for the establishment of a language unit for a national department, national public entity and national
public enterprise.
The South African Revenue Service (hereinafter referred to as “SARS”), listed as a national public entity in Schedule 3 to the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act 1 of 1999), has therefore developed this Language Policy in compliance with the Act.
2. PURPOSE
The purpose of this SARS Language Policy is to outline how SARS will comply with the provisions of the Act, and use South Africa’s 11 of cial languages to improve service to taxpayers and compliance levels.
3. SCOPE
The provisions of this policy are applicable to all SARS employees and members of the public interacting with SARS.
4. NATURE OF SARS
SARS is the country’s revenue collecting authority. Established in terms of the South African Revenue Service Act, 1997 (Act No. 34 of 1997) as an autonomous agency, SARS is responsible for administering the South African tax system and customs service. SARS has a customer service presence in every province through its branches and ports of entry.
5. STRATEGIC CONTEXT
SARS is committed to maximising electronic transactions with taxpayers for purposes of ef ciency and effectiveness, greater compliance and improved service delivery. Hence SARS has been steadily doing away with the need to print forms and returns, preferring that taxpayers submit information electronically. While other channels of interacting with SARS are still available, such as our branches, the interaction there too is largely electronic with direct interaction over the counter with a SARS employee with direct capturing on to our systems, again reducing the need to print forms or returns.
6. OFFICIAL LANGUAGES
SARS will endeavour to use all 11 of cial languages as its languages for government purposes, with the following understanding:
6.1. English, isiZulu, Sesotho and Afrikaans will be phased in as the chosen national languages for government purposes.
6.2. Due to practicalities such as systems, ef ciency, budget, the constraints of African language terminology and the
current language capability within SARS, all electronic platforms, including eFiling, e@sy File, the SARS website,
the SARS intranet, as well as human resources, procurement and nancial systems will be in English.
6.3. The transactional language of the organisation for external and internal operational purposes with staff, taxpayers
and other stakeholders will be in English.
7. USAGE
SARS will phase in the following measured:
7.1. External marketing communication with citizens will be done at a provincial level in accordance with the following languages per province (subparagraph (2) below), depending on the content of the communication, form of the communication, target audience of the communication, feasibility and cost effectiveness.
Juta’s IndIrect tax 2016 613