The system is capable of interfacing with the South African Revenue Service via eFiling, e@asyFILE and ITS to process various tax documents such as Tax Directives, IRP5, IT3a and Employer Reconciliation Declarations. This document describes the ITS interface, starting with how it is first established, and then what the day to day operations entail.
An INF001 electronic external application interface form must be downloaded and submitted to SARS. The form can be downloaded from http://www.sars.gov.za/home.asp?pid=57309. The relevant contact details are recorded on the application form.
Once approved, a document called the ‘SARS Information for External Client’ will be e-mailed. This document contains the FTP user account and password details, security certificate reference and authorisation codes as well as a path to the VPN software required.
The e-mail will also contain the documents required for the following two steps:
- OBTAIN A LAWTRUST CERTIFICATE
A Lawtrust Client Certificate is required to connect to SARS. The document Procedure: Lawtrust Certificate Download describes how to download and install the certificate.
- SET UP A VPN LINK
Connection to SARS is via a Virtual Private Network (VPN). The document Procedure: XP Wrkstn – Cisco VPN Client 3rd Party describes how to download the necessary software and how to set up the link.
Uploading and downloading of files to and from SARS is automated within the system.
The SARS upload process works as follows:
- The tax directive job (BJU3AL00_ALL.cmd) runs in the system creating directive output files to the INpensions\SARS\Request directory
- This in turn initiates the file handling job for submitting to SARS
- The file handling job establishes a VPN connection
- The directive files are copied to the SARS server’s input folder.
- The files are renamed to indicate readiness to be picked up by SARS
- The FTP and VPN sessions are terminated
The SARS results download process works as follows:
- Periodically a scheduled task checks for result files
- This is done by establishing a VPN connection and then an FTP connection to SARS
- Any result files found in the response subdirectory at SARS are downloaded
- The FTP and VPN connections are terminated
- The resulting files are copied to the INpensions\SARS\Response directory
- The batch job BJU3HC00 is then initiated which will import the response files into the system.