Over a million South Africans have filed their returns for the 2009 tax season, a 52.64 percent increase on filed returns compared to the same period last year, Sars said on Wednesday.

"Sars has received more than 1.5 million tax returns since the filing period opened on 1 July this year... by this time last year Sars had received 959 000 returns," spokesperson Adrian Lackay said in a statement.

The current economic crisis seemed to be the motivating factor as South Africans grappling with financial difficulties hoped to qualify for tax rebates, he said.

Another changing trend was more people opting to file electronically, with 95 percent of returns having been filed in this way.

"Since 1 July 830 000 taxpayers used the internet to submit their returns... for the same period last year 479 000 taxpayers had submitted using e-filing."

The motivating factor was that those doing so received refunds within 48 hours.

With only two days for left for manual returns, Lackay said Sars would not extend its deadline. This did not however mean people would be penalised. They could still go to Sars branches to have their returns captured electronically until 20 November the deadline for electronic filing.

Sars offices would be open until 6pm on Friday to accommodate those hoping to beat the manual filing deadline.

Sapa

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