The Sars e-filing season opened on Monday to much fanfare about the new e-filing online system, and while there were some happy online users, there were many who slammed the system for being faulty.
Despite this, Sars said on Wednesday that in the first two days of e-filing more than halfa-million people logged on to the site, with just short of 300,000 requesting returns, and 188,140 people filing returns.
“Sars is thrilled at the uptake of the digital channels and is working hard to make the experience even simpler,” the revenue service said.
On Monday, Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter told 702 and Cape Talk radio listeners that there were some bandwidth issues on the opening day, while on Twitter – the platform on which much of the angst was aired – Sars communicated with users on the first day, acknowledging faults and promising to fix the system.
On Wednesday, Sars said it was “working on a fix to a particular issue”.
The problem it was referring to was when taxpayers “save their income tax return, and immediately reopen the return and press the tax calculate button before the form has fully rendered”.
Sars admitted the problem is “aggravated when taxpayers click multiple times as they try to view their return”, and said it was working on fixes that included “greying out” the calculate button while the form is being loaded, and a measure to limit button clicks to just one.
However, a glance at the complaints on social media revealed that, in addition to the issues around the calculations, users had problems with the one-time pin (OTP) security measure, too.
There were also reports of incorrect information on profiles, as well as missing returns.
“Hi. We are aware that many taxpayers are encountering problems with obtaining their calculation results,” a tweet from the official Sars Twitter account read on Monday morning.
“We have notified the IT teams and will provide an update as soon as we can regarding resolution.”
This was followed by, “Please Note: You should now be able to access all assessments, statements and calculations. We sincerely apologise for the frustrations experienced”; and, “Please Note: The calculation issue should now be resolved. Can you please try again. We sincerely apologise for the frustrations experienced.”
Sars working to iron out e-filing glitches
The Sars e-filing season opened on Monday to much fanfare about the new e-filing online system, and while there were some happy online users, there were many who slammed the system for being faulty.
Despite this, Sars said on Wednesday that in the first two days of e-filing more than halfa-million people logged on to the site, with just short of 300,000 requesting returns, and 188,140 people filing returns.
“Sars is thrilled at the uptake of the digital channels and is working hard to make the experience even simpler,” the revenue service said.
On Monday, Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter told 702 and Cape Talk radio listeners that there were some bandwidth issues on the opening day, while on Twitter – the platform on which much of the angst was aired – Sars communicated with users on the first day, acknowledging faults and promising to fix the system.
On Wednesday, Sars said it was “working on a fix to a particular issue”.
The problem it was referring to was when taxpayers “save their income tax return, and immediately reopen the return and press the tax calculate button before the form has fully rendered”.
Sars admitted the problem is “aggravated when taxpayers click multiple times as they try to view their return”, and said it was working on fixes that included “greying out” the calculate button while the form is being loaded, and a measure to limit button clicks to just one.
However, a glance at the complaints on social media revealed that, in addition to the issues around the calculations, users had problems with the one-time pin (OTP) security measure, too.
There were also reports of incorrect information on profiles, as well as missing returns.
“Hi. We are aware that many taxpayers are encountering problems with obtaining their calculation results,” a tweet from the official Sars Twitter account read on Monday morning.
“We have notified the IT teams and will provide an update as soon as we can regarding resolution.”
This was followed by, “Please Note: You should now be able to access all assessments, statements and calculations. We sincerely apologise for the frustrations experienced”; and, “Please Note: The calculation issue should now be resolved. Can you please try again. We sincerely apologise for the frustrations experienced.”
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