In the run up to the 30 June tax return deadline, Mark sat down with PwC Tax Leader, Stefan Hugo, to chat about TaxTim – the online tax return completion tool, waiting to help us all with our tax returns.
Q: What is TaxTim?
A: TaxTim is an online tax return completion tool.
The aim with TaxTim is to make it easier, accessible & to take you through a quick & simple process to complete your individual income tax return.
Q: How did TaxTim come about?
A: In March 2011, Evan had a problem. He had assumed he could complete his own tax return with confidence and ease. He was wrong. After hours of stress and frustration, he set up a meeting with his friend Marc. Marc knew all about tax and made the process quick and easy. Evan thought “What if I could put Marc’s brain in a machine, then put it online, so that everyone could have their very own affordable tax man to help them?”
In 2015 the tax team at PwC Namibia teamed up with Marc and Evan to develop the Namibian version of TaxTim. PwC’s TaxTim is maintained and supported by the Namibian team.
Q: How does it work?
A: Tim is a little guy on our website (www.taxtim.pwc.com.na) who asks you a series of questions (in speech bubbles). As you respond to the questions and type in the answers it collates all the information in the background so that when you get to the end of the conversation with TaxTim, you can print off your completed Namibian tax return.
Q: Why should I use TaxTim to do my personal tax return?
A: Tax is a technical subject, most of us only do it once a year & we are a bit scared of it. Often we are not sure what we have to disclose because we don’t deal with tax legislation or tax forms all the time. What we tried to do with PwC’s TaxTim, is to use very simple language to ask questions so that people can easily understand. These questions are based on a tax law checklist in the background to make sure that you think about all the things you need to disclose and complete on your tax return. TaxTim adds up all the numbers (so you don’t have to sit with a calculator) and produces it is a neat and complete tax return that you can sign and submit to Inland Revenue.
Q: What kind of feedback do you get from people who have used it?
A: TaxTim users say that they understand their tax much better and they feel comfortable that they disclosed everything that they should have disclosed on their returns. It gives them peace of mind that they won’t be caught later on for leaving out information. They feel empowered and more in control of their taxes.
Q: A lot of people ask if it is going to sort out all their queries with Inland Revenue & how long will it take to get their returns assessed?
A: TaxTim is a tax return completion tool.
It doesn’t deal with the submission process so you still have to submit your hard copy return to Inland Revenue. What it does is to make sure that you have a properly completed tax return which, in our experience, reduces the chances of surprise tax payments or queries from Inland Revenue when the assess the return
Q: How do we access TaxTim?
A: The website is www.taxTim.pwc.com.na
Q: A last message you would like everyone to know about TaxTim?
Try it out. You only pay when you get to the end of the process. Payment is either by credit card or EFT. We also have a group of employers who purchased access vouchers for their employees to use the system.
The pricing depends on the type of return that you are completing. The brown form is the simplest return and costs N$99 (Vat included).
The blue form for people who have some allowances or rental income is N$349.
The yellow form is the extensive form for people that farm or run businesses in their own name and costs N$499.
It’s a very simple process: Get on the website homepage (www.taxtim.pwc.com.na) there is a button that says “Get Started Now”! Click on it to start the conversation with TaxTim who will guide you through the process step by step.
Very important – when you get to the end must print out two copies of your return: One to submit to Inland Revenue and Inland Revenue must stamp other second copy as evidence that your return has been submitted.
For more information visit www.taxtim.pwc.com.na or watch the YouTube demo video at
[youtube]REPLACE_THIS_TEXT_WITH_YOUTUBE_LINK[/youtube]