College of Accounting Sciences

Tax education collaborative workshop – an online tax clinic is conceived

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The Department of Taxation of the College of Accounting Sciences (CAS) presented a successful two-day workshop to develop a collaboration agreement with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) regarding comprehensive tax education targeting both taxpayers and tax professionals. The collaborative workshop, attended by staff of the Department of Taxation and various SARS divisions, was hosted by the Division for Community Engagement and Outreach (DCEO) and facilitated by Dr Genevieve James. Dr Mphagahlele Ndlovu, Chair of the Department of Taxation, welcomed the participants, emphasising the need for collaboration across institutional boundaries. Prof Bernadene de Clercq, research coordinator at the Department of Taxation, outlined the department’s vision for enhancing the tax education ecosystem for the mutual benefit of all involved.

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Members of the CAS’s Department of Taxation and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) attended a workshop hosted by the Division for Community Engagement and Outreach (DCEO)

During the first day, Dr James contextualised Unisa’s engaged scholarship landscape, Prof Jessica Murray introduced the catalytic niche areas and Dr Kerry de Hart, Advocate Werner Uys and Prof de Clercq elucidated the Department of Taxation’s interest in tax education from both a teaching and research perspective. The departmental presentation highlighted collaboration opportunities, suggesting a five-year priority of tax practitioner and taxpayer education, driven by the age of digitalisation and modernisation of the tax administration system. During the afternoon session, Ms Vernie Henson, Senior Manager: Education at SARS, shared SARS’s vision regarding taxpayer education linked to the organisation’s nine strategic objectives. She explained the different methods that SARS is using to educate taxpayers, for example, workshops, information sessions, micro-learning videos, leaflets and SARS YouTube. She indicated that SARS’s education content development strategy is aimed at providing for taxpayers who are not tech-enabled, as well as promoting research into, and the utilisation of, best practices by partnering with other government departments and universities to improve research capacity and the production of tax research in developing economies.

Many synergies emerged during the presentations. On the second day, Prof Rebone Gcabo, the Head: Research, Knowledge Management, Taxpayer and Trader Education at SARS, gave a presentation on SARS’s artificial intelligence (AI) plans and efforts focused on developing a collaboration strategy going forward. The workshop concluded on a high note, highlighting the need for memorandums of understanding to facilitate information access from both parties and plans for the establishment of a tax clinic. Future collaboration between the Department of Taxation and SARS will adhere to the quintile helix model, underpinned by the catalytic niche areas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and digitalisation, as well as ODeL student support, within an engaged scholarship project.

 *Submitted by Ms Simphiwe Mili, Senior Lecturer (CAS: Department of Taxation)

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Publish date: 2024/09/02

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