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Refund gets reversed by your bank 3x and SARS then suddenly requestes for docs but not Audit?

Posted 14 July 2014

Hi TaxTim

I submitted my SARS return on 02/07/14. I requested a statement of account to see if I was selected for an audit and the answer was No.... even today when I request a new statement it says No. So what happened was, on the 3rd/4th and 5th of July 2014, FNB had technical problems, and they reversed all payments from any one that went to FNB accounts. With my luck - it was my SARS refund. So on Tuesday (the 7th of July) I received a message - request for supporting documents, which I uploaded. But nothing happened since. When I request my statement of account - the dates that they tried to pay my refund as well as the reversal dates are clearly shown.... and still it shows not selected for audit. I phoned the call centre - but they don't know what they are talking about. The one guy said all FNB payments should by finalised by Wednesday. The other says I'm being audited and that I have to wait. I am so frustrated, because the money was paid to me 3 times and due to my bank it was reversed an now suddenly the supporting docs question? What do you think is really happening?

TaxTim TaxTim says:
14 July 2014 at 18:50

This was a SARS issue which they have told us has been resolved. They had problems sending the payments to the banks and are trying to catch up. If you have not received your refund by Wednesday let us know and we can see about following up.

Bianca2627 says:
15 July 2014 at 8:13

Thanks for responding.

Do you mean Wednesday 16/07/14?

And what about the fact that they requested me to upload documents (and that it takes 21 working days)?

TaxTim TaxTim says:
15 July 2014 at 9:30

SARS have no real time frames they adhere to and give themselves 30 working days to respond to most queries, but can take a little bit longer. Based on your information about Wednesday it would make sense to wait until then to see if you were refunded and then see what to do next. Did you receive a completion letter after submitting your documents for review.

Bianca2627 says:
15 July 2014 at 9:54

Hi,

No I have not yet received anything since uploading the documents last week Tuesday.

At the top it says e-filing status: assessment received as it did the day after I filed my return. And the ITSA is at the bottom.The Wednesday that I referred to in my story was last week Wednesday.

TaxTim TaxTim says:
15 July 2014 at 10:44

If you were asked to provide supporting documents then you need to wait for a letter of completion to arrive before SARS will pay out a refund. Unfortunately your case is now sitting on an audit pile which is a manual intervention and could take 21 days.

Bianca2627 says:
15 July 2014 at 11:57

Thanks for your help. The only thing that puzzles me is the fact that when I request a new updated statement of account - is still reflects " Selected for Audit: NO". Did you get other query's about this and do you know if they eventually got their money? Were they also requested to upload something?

TaxTim TaxTim says:
15 July 2014 at 12:04

We are getting a lot of queries, the initial glitch with the refund caused everyone to be audited which delayed the process and now has caused longer delays due to the manual audits taking place. Unfortunately once something gets lost inside SARS it can take a bit longer, try be patient, it will come eventually.

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