Tax compliance and services offered by the South African Revenue Service (SARS): SARS - focus group report

Abstract

In its quest to accomplish its mandate; fulfil its strategic goals and in its effort to achieve improved service delivery (focusing on compliance, enforcement and education), SARS commissioned the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to conduct a study on their behalf. The study is intended to establish the perceptions, attitudes and behaviour of taxpayers in respect of tax compliance and of the services rendered by SARS with the following specific objectives:

To measure and assess the public's culture, climate and level of compliance To determine attitudes and behaviour towards compliance To measure an understanding of the relationship between economic performance and tax compliance To measure understanding of the relationship between tax revenue and government social investment (such as education, health, housing, and infrastructure) To assess the accessibility and visibility of SARS

The study is being conducted in two phases, viz., the first phase with a qualitative focus and the forthcoming second phase, which is a quantitative survey.

This report focuses on the result of the first phase of the study, based on the Focus Group Discussions conducted across the country among six groups with different socio-economic backgrounds.