Thursday, October 23, 2008

Have you filed your income tax yet?

Taxing times
Do you battle to get your income tax return in on time? You might be suffering from a mysterious affliction, called “late-filing syndrome”.
At least, that’s what one American politician supposedly has, according to his lawyers. New York governor’s aide Charles J O’Byrne (who, by the way, has a university degree and earns about a million dollars a year) didn’t put in a tax return when he felt depressed – and the poor fellow felt depressed often enough to omit to pay the US government about $292 780, which is about R3-million at today’s tragic exchange rate. His lawyers have asked for the court to show mercy due to late-filing syndrome, a “condition that made it difficult for him to fill out his tax returns”.
Now, if you are anything like me, then you are probably all over the place with your own tax returns, because here in South Africa the dates and the forms change every year. Actually, I’ve lost track of this year’s date, isn’t it sometime soon? Or has it already been? It makes feel depressed just to think of it.
Anyone know where I can get in touch with Charles J O’Byrne’s lawyers?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know how Mr O'Byrne feels. I get it every year. And this year, with the economy in the state that it's in, there are going to be lots of depressed people with late submissions!
By the way, the deadline for manual submission of returns this year is 21 November and eFiling is 23 January. Read more at http://www.sars.co.za/home.asp?pid=11143
Steve Matthewson